Video Backlog: “Dancouga”

Publisher: Eastern Star (Discotek, USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 38 episodes x 24 mins
Production Date: 1985
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

During the late 20th century, an alien empire called Zorbados is in the process of invading Earth. With little effort and in a short amount of time, the invaders lay waste to the vast majority of Earth’s defences. At the Space Officer Academy in Australia, even new recruits are sent into battle. This includes the close couple of Shapiro Keats and Sara Yuki. Shapiro realises the Earth is doomed and believes this is his chance to make something of his life. He takes the bold decision to defect to the enemy. Sara attempts to follow but another cadet, the cocky Shinobu Fujiwara, fires at her plane to disable it which forces her to land. Shinobu advises the military that Shapiro is presumed dead but in fact has been caught and is being tortured by the enemy for information. Brazenly he tells them he wants to defect to their side and offers up a plan to prove himself. He suggests a plan to attack the top secret North American weapon cache, which supplies the continent and has caused trouble for the empire. Since Shapiro’s information is accurate, Emperor Muge soon realises that Shapiro could be highly useful to them and gives him a prominent position in their military, despite the grumblings of his generals.

Back on Earth, Shinobu is transferred to Japan as part of the Cyber Beast Force (or CBF), which is an agency specifically set up to fight the alien attack with advanced technology. There under the supervision of General Ross Igor and Professor Kotaro Hazuki, Shinobu’s fighter is modified. Sceptical that the modifications will enable him to better fight the enemy, he is given orders to pilot the machine now called the Eagle Fighter. As per his nature, Shinobu ignores the general and professor’s orders in terms of engaging the enemy. However, while in combat that he realises that through his anger, it changes into “Aggressive Beast Mode”, in which he is able to wipe out most of the empire’s fighters. Shinobu is soon joined by Sara who is tasked with piloting a tank called the Land Cougar. Though at first Shinobu protests at her inclusion in the team due to the fact she tried to defect with Shapiro, he later accepts her as a team member. Two others later join them; a young man named Masato Shikibu who pilots a tank called the Land Liger, and the rather aloof and cool Ryo Shiba who pilots another tank called the Big Moth (as in Mammoth).

Through the many battles with the aliens, they discover many things about their craft they pilot. All of them have the “Aggressive Beast Mode”, and can change into “Beast Mode” (into a mechanical Eagle, Cougar, Liger and Mammoth respectively). Not only that, their machines can transform into a humanoid form and eventually can link up together to form the giant robot “Dancouga” when Shinobu enters the code word “Dancouga” in his Eagle. Although they are sometimes defeated by the enemy, they always return to counterattack. They are sometimes helped by a mysterious fighter only known as the Black Knight who has his own beast warrior machine. However General Ross warns the CBF not to engage with the Black Knight as he may not be on their side. Early on in the series, Shinobu befriends a young girl called Laura Sullivan. Her mother has been killed in an attack on Sacramento city and only her and her puppy, Becky, have survived. But due to an alien attack, Shinobu manages to lose track of her. Later in the series, Sara discovers Laura and brings her back to the CBF base where General Igor eventually adopts her.

With the continuing Zorbados empire attacks, Sara notices the pattern of tactics being used is similar to those favoured by Shapiro. She believes that he is directing the attacks, however Shinobu convinces her that it’s a coincidence. In a latter operation Sara accidentally comes across Shapiro inside the enemy’s fortress. The confirmation that Shapiro did indeed defect to the enemy which shocks her. The former lovers are now on opposite sides of the war, directly fighting each other. As the series progresses towards its final arc, the war against the Zorbados empire is soon getting worse and it seems that Earth is losing. After a long search often hampered by the CBF themselves, the Zorbados empire eventually finds the hidden CBF base and attack it mercilessly. But General Igor and Professor Hazuki have an ace up their sleeve that may be able to save the Earth.

This somewhat mediocre robot show from the mid 1980’s has for some reason always fascinated me. I’ve previously written about it a few times. Possibly the only other franchise I’ve written about more is Gundam. Originally released by Software Sculptures on VHS in the US in the late 1990’s, it had the unfortunate distinction of being the longest series released on VHS that was never reissued on DVD or blu-ray.  Finally Discotek has decided to release the series on DVD. Although the show is from the mid 1980’s, it does feel at times it is a throwback from another era, especially with some elements obviously taken from super robot shows. Certainly with shows like “Macross” and “Votoms” airing years before “Dancouga”, the general set up of the series feels downright old fashioned. Couple this with the fact it’s an anime explicitly made to sell transformable toys and looking like a combination of “Go Lion” and any number of 1970’s giant combining robot vs alien invaders shows, it’s somehow is quite entertaining. There’s enough plot twists to keep the viewer interested nearly all the way through. Despite the fact CBF look like a clichéd fighting team on initial viewing, the characters have a decent amount of depth to them, though some can be rather unlikable at times, and some have really interesting backgrounds. But as I said before a lot of the show is pretty mediocre. A lot of the story is predictable. For example, guess who General Igor’s estranged son is? Also the way the general acts towards his team is pretty clichéd as well. Outside of “Zeta Gundam”, I’ve never seen so many people get slapped or punched (mostly team mates hitting each other or high ups doing the hitting).

Playing an odd role is a girl called Laura Sullivan. Though it would seem she’s only there to sell the soundtrack to the series (she sings a song named “Harmony Love” and her voice actor sings both opening theme songs.), she plays an important part in the end due the song she sings. The creators have also included some odd pop culture references in the show. A child solider they come across is named Dan Aykroyd, and the system that controls Dancouga is called “THX 1138”. Even worse is the terrible stereotyping of foreign people. Since the show takes place in many countries, the writers had many chances to show their general ignorance. In one episode the CBF go to Harlem in New York where they meet a group of African Americans who just dance and play Jazz all the time. In another episode they go to Switzerland where a local says “We Swiss are always prepared for war!”, and we cut away to the locals bringing out a massive cache of weapons and even anti-aircraft turrets.

Unfortunately some of the animation isn’t too crash hot. For a large number of episodes towards the first quarter of the series, in some scenes only the key animation is used. So there’s only about two frames a second in some of the animation. It looks terribly cheap, even for TV animation. Also some of the character designs are massacred by the animators and are really off model at times. However, towards the end of the series, especially in the last five or so episodes, the animation improves substantially. Like a lot of robot anime of the period the soundtrack is reasonably good. Most of it is with a full band and includes a lot of brass instruments. There are some synthesised tracks, but these are kept to a minimum and most of these are OK, albeit a bit cheesy at times. There’s no one on the staff roster of note other than Masami Obari who did some of the mecha designs and key animation. His style is pretty distinctive and you can easily spot his animation cuts, especially those involving Dancouga or any other mecha in the series.

Discotek’s 6 disc set is about as good as you’re going to get in terms of an English langue release. The original 8 volume set put out by Software Sculptures not only cut out most of the ending animations as well as the next episode previews, but the second opening animation featuring the song “A Real Kiss In Return”, was transposed with the first. Naturally the Discotek version reverses all of these edits and unnecessary changes. The original episode title cards had the episode title in Japanese as well as an English language title, often not a translation at all and sometimes phrased awkwardly or misspelled. Software Sculptures never actually translated or subbed the Japanese titles, however Discotek have finally done the right thing and subbed them. The translation in part seems to be ported directly over from the original script found on the old VHS tapes. I sort of wish they had scrapped that script and done a completely new translation. The other thing I noticed in this set is the rather noisy analogue tape hiss in the audio. I can only assume this was present on the Japanese DVD and blu-ray box sets, so I’m confused as to why the audio was never cleaned up. This DVD set contains no extras whatsoever. The final VHS tape in Software Sculptures’ release featured the follow up OVA, “Requiem for Victims”, albeit edited down to 30 minutes to remove recap footage from the TV series. Unfortunately, this OVA is not present in Discotek’s release. The company have not stated if they will release this OVA or the other OVAs in the franchise.

“Dancouga” is a decent robot anime TV series. Without the plot twists and fairly interesting characters it’d be dull as dishwater and just a toy commercial. It just manages to rise above being average. There is a significant rise in the quality of the story and animation towards the end of the series which just about saved this show for me. In short, this show is hardly as good as many other robot anime of the time, but still it’s worth a look if you like the genre. 6 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Five TV series, four OVAs and nine movies. In addition I am also waiting for additional parts of four TV series and two movies to be released before viewing them.

Anime Music Video Compilations: “Bronze Cathexis Koji Nanjo”

Publisher: Youmex/Margaret Video/Toshiba EMI
Format: VHS and Laserdisc, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue
Length: 33 minutes
Original Release Date: 6 July 1994
Animation Exclusive to this Release: Yes
Other Sources (Japanese unless noted): None
Currently Availability (as of writing): Out of Print

Note: Originally published on the "Anime Archivist" blog April 2014.

Coinciding with the amazing rise of anime’s popularity in the west in the early to mid 00’s was the fandom around Yaoi. What struck me was that despite all of the material released during that period, Minami Ozaki’s popular manga “Zetsuai 1989” and the follow up series “Bronze: Zetsuai Since 1989”, as well as their anime adaptations, were never translated and marketed to an English language audience. I think it’s easily one of the best in the genre, and I’m not exactly a fan of Yaoi. I first came across the series around 1998 or so when a friend recommended it to me. I borrowed his fansubbed tape which also included the “Bronze Cathexis Koji Nanjo” music video. While I wasn’t completely sold on the OVA (the 1996 “Bronze: Zetsuai Since 1989”, in which the character designs overemphasised the pointy chins and noses almost to parody of the original designs), I thought the music video collection was brilliant. It was dark and moody and the music was fantastic, the antithesis of the brightly coloured, perpetually happy idol filled J-Pop I had heard (and mostly disliked) up to that point

The origins of the story, believe it or not, come from Ozaki’s “Captain Tsubasa” dojinshi published in the late 1980’s. Based on the highly popular shonen soccer manga, it featured forward Kojiro Hyuga and goalkeeper Ken Wakashimazu in a homosexual relationship. As you might have guessed by the title, the manga was released in 1989 and soon developed quite a following. Ozaki halted the series only after five volumes, but recommenced the manga under the title “Bronze: Zetsuai Since 1989” in 1991, only for it to cease prematurely at 19 volumes due to illness. Ozaki later drew a dojinshi to give the story a proper conclusion. The manga spun off two OVAs; Madhouse’s “Zetsuai 1989” in 1992 and Production I.G’s “Bronze: Zetsuai Since 1989” in 1996. A number audio dramas, a couple of albums and scores of mini albums also followed. I suppose with one of leads being a rock star, it was rather inevitable that the music and animation would eventually come together. But before we look at this compilation track by track, I think we should take a closer look at the story of the franchise;

“Zetsuai 1989” follows 17 year old rock star Koji Nanjo, who has become rather apathetic towards life and feels that he can’t find happiness. After a solo pub crawl late at night, he ends up out on the street collapsed on a pile of garbage bags in the pouring rain. 17 year old Soccer prodigy Takuto Izumi is in the midst of training when he comes across Koji. For some strange reason and against his better judgement, Izumi feels compelled to take him out of the rain and back to his flat. Koji awakens the next morning and is stunned that he finds himself being drawn towards Izumi. Passing billboards in Shibuya, Izumi realises who Koji is and asks him to return to his career. But Koji soon develops an obsession with him, much to Izumi’s annoyance. It later occurs to Koji that he had previously saw Izumi some six years ago at school and had immediately fell for him then.

Despite Izumi’s initial reluctance, their relationship eventually develops but Izumi decides to take off for Italy to further his soccer skills without telling Koji. Koji discovers what has happened and races off to airport, but ends up in a serious accident on his motorbike. Nearly dying from this incident, Kojo awakens to find he cannot speak. Soon after the sudden death of his father forces him to become the head of his influential and rich family. He tries to avoid this task and continue his music career, but his brother blackmails him into doing it by threatening to publicly reveal his relationship with Izumi. Meanwhile Izumi decides to turn his back on Koji and their relationship and heads off to Italy permanently to play in the national league. As you’d imagine, the music video compilation is just as melodramatic as the plot of the manga and anime adaptations;

“Bad Blood” performed by Hayami Sho

First up I should mention that this compilation was produced by Madhouse who made the first OVA two years prior. The compilation was directed by none other than Rintaro (“Galaxy Express 999”, “Metropolis”) and features some Madhoue’s top talent of the time working on storyboards. “Bad Blood” was storyboarded by Kodera Katsuyuki who is probably most famous as the director of “Sci-Fi Harry”. This video looks like a typical live action music video of the time. Koji and his band are playing in what seems like an abandoned building. Like the music, fast paced rock with wild guitar and lot of synth, it’s very moody looking. Intercut with the scenes of the band are various shots of a lone Koji; a shot of him in a seemingly abandoned Shibuya, next to a wreck of a car, near a military base etc. Towards the end there is a shot of Koji draped over a young white haired man (I’m not sure if this is meant to be Izumi or not) on a bed, bare chested with his hands tied above his head. It certainly fits the song’s lyrics which are not only sexual, but quite violent. The song “Bad Blood” is performed by Koji’s voice actor, Hayami Sho, who performs all of the vocals on this compilation. The song was first released on the mini album “Shakumetsu Natsu: Zetsuai -1989- Version 2” in September 1992.

“Jesus Christ Love For You” performed by Hayami Sho

Well if the pain, blood and overt homosexuality was too much for you in the first video, then you may not like what’s coming up next; blasphemy! There are a ton of Christian imagery references in the video, mostly to do with angels and most perplexingly an image of the Ark. The song lyrics and imagery leave little doubt that Koji believes he is Izumi’s saviour. However despite his best efforts, in the end he fails. Izumi in his angel form whisks Koji off towards heaven. Apart from the angels, there’s scene of some strange ceremony in a church and unexplained shots of a black carriage being draw though a snowy landscape by galloping black stallions (with Koji in the carriage). There’s also a reference to Izumi’s childhood where we see him as child in a pool of blood, stabbed by his suicidal mother. Believe it or not, Yoshiaki Kawajiri (of “Ninja Scroll” and “Wicked City” fame) drew the storyboards for the video. The song used for here is has a slower tempo, but is just a moody and dark as the other tracks on this compilation. Like the previous track, it also appears on the mini album “Shakumetsu Natsu: Zetsuai -1989- Version 2”.

“Katsuai (Thirsty Love)” performed by Hayami Sho

The third video reverts back to a simpler style of music video. The majority of shots are of Koji and his band inside a recording studio performing the song. Apart from shots of the band and Koji, there are close up cutaway shots of the studio’s equipment. As the video progresses, we see shots of Koji embracing Izumi and standing alone next his car beside the bay bridge in Tokyo. The last part of the video has Koji performing in concert with chains draped over him, and his hands seemingly fondling the microphone stand. The camera finally focuses in on the young white haired boy from the first video, who is standing in the crowd. Yes, it’s full steam ahead with the over the top Yaoi imagery with this one. The song, like all of the tracks here, is really well produced with layers of synth and also a few slightly off kilter notes from a saxophone. The lyrics are really dark and quite disturbing with the one line “I hate you/I rape you” being sung in English. It comes off as a really abusive love song. This version of the song is a was taken off the mini album “Cathexis” which was released in June 1994. The original can be found on mini album “Bronze Endmax Katsuai XX93” which was released in September 1993. Koichi Chigira, who would later go on to direct “Gate Keepers” and “Full Metal Panic!”, worked on the storyboards.

“20XX Zetsu-ai (20XX Desperate Love)” performed by Hayami Sho

The fourth video is set in a sci-fi post apocalyptic world. Izumi seems to be the leader of a resistance group fighting against a tyrannical Koji. It starts off with a number of soldiers being brutally killed with gushers of blood spraying everywhere. Izumi then sneaks into Koji’s compound to do a bit of sabotage. Koji watches him on a monitor and latter goes out to battle him. In the ensuing fight, Koji gets the upper hand, chases him, then strikes him down with his sword to subdue him. He then proceeds to strip Izumi and seemingly sexually assaults him. In the final shot, Koji is crying tears of blood. Putting aside the obvious Nazi imagery (which the animators barely obscure), the other slightly disturbing part of this video is the lyrics, full of sexual violence. But when you think about it, it’s really no more shocking than the other songs in this compilation. Both Koji and Izumi are dressed in black with their over the top capes flapping the in the breeze (reminding me a lot of CLAMP’s “X”). It’s all very dark and moody (I know, I’m overusing those two words…), but almost teeters on the edge of parody. The song used for the video is probably best described as hard rock with a driving guitar but lots of layered synth as well. The song was first released on the “Bronze Endmax Katsuai XX93” mini album in September 1993. Morio Asaka who would later direct such titles as “Cardcaptor Sakura”, “Chobits”, “Gunslinger Girl” and “Chihayafuru”, drew the storyboards.

“Gekkou ~ Möbius no Eien (Moonlight Eternal Möbius)” performed by Hayami Sho

Yet another dark (literally) and moody video clip. It begins with a close up shot of Koji’s face as his long hair (coloured black rather than his usual white/silver) blows around his face in the breeze. This is intercut with real leaves animated as they were blowing in the wind. This progresses to a real shot of a “photograph” of Koji in various stages of destruction, literally being torn to pieces. The clip then reverts to normal cel animation as Koji is seen in a black, but snowy landscape with a giant full moon in the background. Mid way through the clip, we see images of the couple making love and then from the manga the sequence where Izumi leaves for Italy and Koji goes after him. The accident sequence is really well done here, in fact a lot more dramatic than how it was presented in the “Bronze: Zetsuai Since 1989” OVA a couple of years later. At the end of the video Koji sees Izumi in a doorway, only for him to turn and leave Kojio again. The song is essentially a love ballad, but as with the rest of the music here it has a dark undercurrent flowing beneath it. The track first appeared on the “Bronze Endmax Katsuai XX93” mini album. Toshio Hirata did the storyboards for this one. He is best known at the director for “Barefoot Gen 2”, “The Fantastic Adventures of Unico” and “Pet Shop of Horrors”.

The music video compilation ends with an “Original Image Picture Crip” (I think they mean “Clip”, not an LA gang member). This is a six minute slideshow of Minami Ozaki’s colour artwork from the series. The music is a classical piece, Tomaso Albinoni’s “Adagio in G minor” which is actually taken from the “Cathexis” mini album, released in June 1994. I can find no credits for the performers of the piece. A couple of minor effects used in the clip are a little bit cheap and cheesy. Strangely the VHS version of this compilation was released as a two tape set; the first tape with the five animated music videos, the second tape with the image clip. The laserdisc version contains both on one side of the disc.

“Cathexis” is still one of my favourite anime music video compilations. However there is an aspect of the compilation which bugs me. It’s the animation. While it may the animation may be all brand new and doesn’t include any previously released animation, it’s quite obvious it was produced on a budget. There are a lot of still scenes with camera pans, however most of the action scenes are well animated. The animation frame rate is generally a notch or two below TV animation of the time rather than of OVA quality. However for me the budget animation is a minor annoyance. The music is excellent. Sure it’s rather melodramatic and over the top, much like the visuals and the original source material, but it’s extremely well produced and performed with layers of moody synths and wailing electric guitar. Hayami Sho performs the songs with a lot of emotion that feels genuine.

Despite the popularity of the franchise, no one seems to be interested in re-releasing any of the animated adaptations including this music video compilation. Generally you can find the two VHS tape version for less than ¥500 on Japanese auction sites and Amazon.co.jp, though I have seen copies as high as ¥2,500 and even up to ¥10,000. As most copies hover well under the ¥500 mark and are quite plentiful, so there really is no reason why you should pay above that amount for a copy. The laserdisc version usually goes for around ¥1,000 or less. It’s slightly more rare, but can be found easily. Both versions came with a bonus telephone card, however my second hand laserdisc was missing the card and only came with the black and white lyric and credits insert. In conclusion, even if Yaoi isn’t really your thing (as it is with me) and you aren’t offended by subject matter or the perplexing Nazi imagery in a couple of the videos, then you probably should look into getting this compilation. The music is brilliantly crafted Japanese pop-rock and the visuals are awesome.

The Obscurities in the Western Connection Catalogue: “The Sensualist”

Release Date: 28 June 1993
Format: PAL VHS, Japanese Dialogue with English Subtitles
Runtime: 54 mins
Catalogue Number: WEST005
Japanese Title: Koshoku Ichidai Otoko (The Life of an Amorous Man)
Japanese Production Date: 1990

This is the second part in a series on the UK video label Western Connection (please click here for the intro). The very first anime the company released was the highly obscure OVA “The Sensualist”. While it’s blatantly obvious that the title was really out of step with the material Manga Entertainment and other anime companies in the UK were releasing at the time, it really fits in with the mixed bag of live action foreign and arthouse films that Western Connection had released prior to this. I think we can safely assume that Sasha Capliko had absolutely no intentions of marketing this tape to the anime crowd. Of course this title changed everything for the company. But before we get to that, let’s have a look at the contents of the tape.

Sometime in the Edo period in Japan, an aging man in his early 60s drinks sake while recounting his life. He laments that he is getting old and grey and the women he loved are also turning the same way. From the age of seven until the age of sixty, the man, Yonosuke, had sex with over 3,742 women and 725 men. Born into a wealthy family, offspring of a merchant with loose morals and a prostitute, his obsession with lust eventually led him to gaol, his father disowning him, and even a brief stint as monk, until his lust drove him mad a week later.

Around 10 years earlier, Yonosuke was merchant and running the Kyoto branch of the family business, a shop named Yume which sells kimonos. One of his underlings, a tailor named Juzo, comes to visit him at the shop. He explains he is off the Edo in order to sleep with the tayu oiran (high class prostitute) called Komurasaki. Yonosuke is extremely surprised at this because these women will not sleep with anyone on the first meeting, let alone see commoners such as lowly tailors. Juzo explains that he was drunk at a party and made a bet with the host he could sleep with the legendary Komurasaki upon the first meeting. If he wins he gets a villa, but if he fails he will literally lose his manhood. A man called Uhei is travelling along with him to confirm the bet. Yonosuke realises that Juzo has been duped and decides to travel with him to Edo to give him the best chance he can of winning the bet. During the journey and upon arrival the red light district of Yoshiwara, Yonosuke teaches and prepares Juzo to give him the best chance he has to succeed. Upon arrival of Komurasaki’s residence, they are told that the mistress will be unable to see her for a few days. But eventually she makes her appearance and having done as much as he can to prepare him, Yonosuke leaves Juzo to complete the bet.

This OVA is based upon Ihara Saikaku’s 1682 novel “Koshoku Ichidai Otoko (The Life of an Amorous Man)”. Saikaku was a really talented man. Like the protagonist in this OVA, he was the son of a wealthy Osaka merchant and studied under a couple of the country’s top poets. He soon became well versed in the art of haikai poetry (a satirical form of Japanese poetry that uses puns). Supposedly Saikaku wrote somewhere between 16,000 and 23,500 haikai stanzas in a single day and night in 1677. In 1675 when his wife died, he was so grief stricken he wrote a thousand verse haikai poem in 12 hours. After roaming Japan as a monk, he began writing lurid accounts of the business dealings and affairs of the merchant class, of which “The Life of an Amorous Man” is probably the most famous of these.

As I mentioned before the era the OVA depicts is the Edo period, sometimes referred to the Tokugawa period. To be honest not I don’t think it’s a period really well known or understood by many westerners. Sexuality in this era is even more of a mystery to the average westerner, so of course world of the courtesans called oiran would completely unknown to most. During this time, Japan was possibly the most liberal country in terms of sexual openness. The oiran had to be well versed in a number of skilled Japanese arts such as flower arranging, tea ceremonies, calligraphy, traditional Japanese instruments as well as being knowledgeable in scholarly matters and to hold witty and intelligent conversation. They expected clients to be of high social ranking and could turn down any client at whim. It wasn’t just about sex, in fact there was a lot of ritualised “foreplay” to get though before the act was even considered. While some of this is explained in the OVA, I think the creators assumed the viewers had some knowledge of the subject. The tape could have benefitted by some liner notes, but of course this is a Western Connection tape, so would have never been on the cards.

While the film itself is quite amazing for the most part, it’s perhaps a little too crude towards the end. The setting and content really is the exact opposite of what was being produced in Japan during that time period. The animation is drop dead gorgeous most of the time, but is to a degree quite experimental and deliberately quite flat looking. A lot of the time the imagery reminds me of a Edo era woodcuts with the character designs also have a similar feel but obviously having a more modern look. As the story of Yonosuke helping out the hapless Juzo unfolds, it is intercut with Yonosuke’s back story and scenes of him having sex with various prostitutes. The thing is for the greater majory of the film the sex isn’t really explicit at all. Yes, you can clearly see the characters having sex, but whilst they’re doing the deed certain elements are represented in surreal and abstract ways. For instance at one point male genitalia is represented by a turtle’s head and female genitalia by black ink morphing into vulva like shapes. It’s certainly not meant to be pornographic, but it can be very sensual. A lot of the time the focus is on the woman’s face, usually in ecstasy with a few strands of hair in her mouth. But the problem with the film is there isn’t a great deal of plot. We learn of Yonosuke’s debaucherist past, Juzo’s path to fulfil his bet and we meet the courtesan Komurasaki, and that’s it really. Oh, and the sex. The climax (ooh-err!) of the film contains the most explicit sex scene of the film with a male voyeur spying on a couple while he, uh, tugs himself off. I understand that in terms of story the voyeur was needed in that scene, but it did feel rather crude, almost like a scene out of an exploitation film, especially after the artily done sensuality of the previous sex scenes.

The studio who made it, the now defunct Grouper Production, isn’t all that famous for experimental anime of this type. In fact their two most famous productions are the crude “The Ping Pong Club” and the 1986 film “Super Mario Brothers: Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach”. The director (also the art director) was Yukio Abe who is most famous for working on a lot of Sanrio’s animated children’s films as an art director. It seems he never returned to the director’s chair after this film. But the screenwriter, Eiichi Yamamoto, has a background more in line with this film. He was the director for the trilogy of Osamu Tezuka/Mushi Production films made in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s referred to as the Animerama film series; “A Thousand & One Nights”, “Cleopatra” and the lesser known “Belladonna”. These trio of films were aimed at an adult audience and to various degrees contained sexual themes. I suppose due to the bubble economy in Japan during the late 1980’s to the very early 1990’s, a lot of money was poured into various industries. Anime of course got it’s share too, so it’s no wonder that a fair amount of unusual projects got the green light, including this one.

Curiously the only versions available of this OVA are three VHS versions; a Japanese version released by Toho, a French release and this one. It has never been reissued on Laserdisc, DVD or Blu-ray in Japan or anywhere else for that matter. According to an ANN article on this film by Justin Sevakis, Central Park Media attempted to licence the film back in the 1990’s, but two of the Japanese producers had a falling out and flat out refused to grant licence for US distribution. This falling out is probably also the reason why the film has never made it to DVD or Blu-ray in Japan. In fact once the film was originally released by Toho in Japan on VHS, it just seemed to fade into obscurity. There is very little in the way of Japanese sources with any information on the title. A couple of English language sources try to claim this film was a theatrical release, however there is no evidence that this was the case. There’s no entry on the Japanese Movie Data Base (only the 1961 live action theatrical version released by Daiei is listed) and no other movie sources list it. The website of the film’s co-producer, OB Planning, clearly lists it as an OVA, so that’s pretty definitive in my book.

Overall I think it’s an extremely well animated and engaging OVA. The only thing I can compare it to is the 1987 anime film “The Tale of Genji”, but other than a couple similarities in style and genre, the two films are quite different. If you are interested in animation as art, then you should track down this film. It’s a gorgeous piece of work. As this was one of Western Connection’s earlier releases, the subtitling is rather decent (well, compared with their latter work). Certainly there are a few mistimed lines and a couple of untranslated lines of dialogue (nothing of real importance is missed), but overall it’s decent. It’s quite passable. The packaging and artwork is also above the company’s usual standard, though the front cover is almost an exact facsimile of Toho’s VHS cover. As for current availability of this tape, well as you’d expect for something so obscure released some two decades ago, it’s slim pickings. There’s only one copy I can find available for sale at the moment, being sold on Amazon.co.uk for £21. This is arguably the best anime title the company released in its catalogue. The remaining anime titles I’ll be covering in this series are far more on the trashier side.

Note: Originally published on the "Anime Archivist" blog March 2014, based on a previous version published on the "Lost World of Anime" website in 2004.

Melbourne: A Piss Weak Anime Shopping Guide

About a year ago I went down to Sydney for a trip, mostly to get away from work and see the city which I really hadn’t been to for about half decade. I also wanted to compile a list of anime shops as there really wasn’t a guide anywhere for the city. I ended up being rather disappointed at what I found. There was only two dedicated anime shops in the city (though another has set up shop quite recently in the CBD), a substantial change from the 1990’s and early 2000’s where there were several anime related shops in the CBD. I had decided to make a similar list for Melbourne which I had planned to visit again within the year.

I almost didn’t get around to doing it but decided to go to Madfest in early November. I really wasn’t expecting much in terms of shops. I thought a couple had closed and knew the shop selling Japanese magazines had shut down (now online only) and so did a maid café which only operated on Fridays and Sundays. Unfortunately I was a bit sick during my stay, so I didn’t get to as many shops as I liked. Also due to the convention, a lot of shops were closed as they prepared to sell their merchandise in the dealer’s room. However I was really surprised at how many shops there were in Melbourne. There was also a ton of Gundam plastic models (or Gunpla as they’re colloquially called) in every single anime shop in the city. I love the fact that building plastic models is still something fans do in this city. It’s a hobby that has unfortunately fallen out of fashion with most anime fans all around the world. There are a large number of comic book shops in the city, but I have only included those with a large manga and/or anime section. Also because I didn’t get around to all of the shops I wanted to see, the list isn’t as comprehensive as I would have liked it to be. However I think I have complied all of the important shops in the city.

One Stop Anime  
Address: Level 3, 180 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9663 9098
Opening Times: Everyday 11am to 6pm, except Thursday and Friday, closes at 7pm, Sunday, closes at 5pm

Right in the middle of Chinatown, this shop is hidden away on the third floor of a building next door to Hungry Jacks. It’s pretty easy to miss the entrance, but does have a couple of A4 sized laser printed signs outside the entrance. Like a lot of the shops I tried to visit on my trip, this one was closed when I visited.  Originally opening in 2002, looks like the shop has moved a couple of times before settling in Bourke Street. The shop has a quite large range of merchandise including Ichiban Kuji prizes, Figma, Gundam plastic model kits, Nendoroids, crane game prizes, cards, DVDs, plush toys, key chains and even wind chimes and other assorted miscellaneous anime merchandise. However like most anime shops the core of their business is selling figures. Prices seem comparable to other anime shops.

Nekocards

Address: Level 1, 311 Elizabeth Street (entrance on Little Lonsdale Street), Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9650 6356
Opening Times: Everyday 1pm to 8pm, except Thursday and Friday, closes at 9pm, Saturday 11am to 9pm, Sunday 11 am to 6pm

A year or two ago, one of the editors from Anime News Network (which I am no fan of) publicly berated a Japanese tour operator because they took his group to a card shop in Akihabara. Because we all know westerners don’t play these games, right? Oh wait they do, you massive knob. Admittedly though this part of fandom the west is rather niche. However there have been at least two attempts to set up card shops in Australia; one in Sydney which by all accounts didn’t last too long, and this shop in Melbourne’s CBD. The shop is in the same building as the local branch of the Pepper Lunch restaurant chain, but the entrance is located on Little Lonsdale Street, with a graffiti style logo above the entrance, so you can’t miss it. Apart from selling card games by Bushiroad, Weiβ Schwarz as well as Cardfight!! Vanguard, Future Card Buddyfight and Force of Will games, the staff can also show you how to play the games. You can also play the games there and they often hold special events.

Minotaur  
Address: 121 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9670 5414
Opening Times: Everyday 9am to 6pm, except Friday, closes at 8pm, Sunday, 11am to 5pm

In my opinion, this easily the best comic book shop in Australia. Though I think more correctly they’re called a “pop culture superstore”, as a lot of comic book shops, Minotaur included, have branched out over the last two or three decades to include other segments of pop culture including manga and anime. As you walk down the stairs, you’ll pretty much find the manga and anime sections of the shop to your right. They have a very extensive collection of manga including some books, pretty much every Australian anime DVD in print (or pretty close to it anyway), a ton of anime merchandise including figures from manufacturers such as Good Smile and Kotobukiya, Figma, Nendoroids, S.H.Figuarts, other miscellaneous merchandise like keychains, t-shirts and other clothing items as well as Funko Pop! Vinyl figures.

Critical Hit  

Address: 377 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Phone: 0448 773 030
Opening Times: Everyday 10am to 6pm, except Thursday, until 7pm, Friday until 7pm, Sunday 11am to 5pm

This shop first began trading in 2010, and although the website makes it look like they’re mostly a games shop, the physical store itself is filled with a ton of anime products. The shop is also located inside the ground floor of the heritage listed Collins Gate art deco building which I thought was a bit unusual. I can only assume the rent might be on the pricy side, however when I went there ion a Friday afternoon there was plenty of customers in the store. Aside from the card games and other western pop culture merchandise they have on offer, they stock second hand games, a large range of Gundam plastic model kits, a wide range of merchandise including some Cospa  merchandise, figures, some CD soundtracks, t-shirts and other clothing items, crane game figures, Studio Ghibli merchandise, DVDs and blu-rays, manga, Funko Pop! Vinyl figures, key rings and other miscellaneous merchandise.

Animasia  

Address: QV Melbourne, 26 Jane Bell Lane, Melbourne
Phone: 0425 423 709
Opening Times: Everyday 11am to 7pm, except Thursday and Friday until 8pm, Saturday and Sunday 11:30am to 7:30pm

The QV shopping precent is a bit of a labyrinth to be honest. I had some slight trouble trying to find this store. And of course when I got there, it was closed for the day in preparation for Madfest. You can quite clearly see tons of figures from outside, but upon closer inspection through the window you can see a large table in the centre of the shop with half built Gundam kits and bits and pieces of model making equipment sprawled all over. It’s patently obvious what the owners of the shop like doing. In fact their Facebook indicates you can come in and get hints from the staff on how to make Gunpla. If you google the shop’s name, you’ll see something really nasty within the first few results; a 2015 Sun Herald article saying that convicted paedophile Stephen Maxwell Murray was running the shop at least since a year after its inception in 2010. Not sure what the current situation of the shop is or who runs it, but doubt Murray is involved in the shop anymore. You’d think they would have at least changed the name of the store. At any rate the store sells Gundam plastic model kits (of course), a wide range of figures, wallscrolls and  hobby supplies such as paint.

Hearns Hobbies

Address: 295 Flinders Street, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9629 1425
Opening Times: Everyday 9:30am to 5:30pm, except Saturday, 10am to 3pm, closed Sunday

This family run hobby shop has been around for more than 70 years. That’s a pretty long time for such a business. Not sure how long they’ve been in their current location in a basement location in Flinders street, but they were in the same location about five years ago when I last went to the store. Currently they are working on the façade of the building and there is scaffolding everywhere, but the shop is easily accessible. I think they had two or more locations, but now their store in the CBD is it. As you can image they mostly sell remote control planes, cars and ships, as well as slot cars, plastic models and diecast cars. However they also sell a lot of sci-fi related plastic models and of course anime related ones. They stock around 150 anime related plastic model kits, almost exclusively Bandai kits, mostly Gundam, but also including a decent range of Yamato 2199, Dragonball series, Girls und Panzer and even a couple of old Evangelion kits. They also stock a number of Gundam accessory kits and of course hobby supplies. The shop also has a club which costs $25 and gives you a 10% discount on kits.

Alternate Worlds Comics and Collectables
Address: Unit 11/13 Malvern Street, Bayswater
Phone: (03) 9738 2662
Opening Times: Everyday 12pm to 7pm, except Monday, 11am to 6pm, Saturday, 11am to 4pm, Sunday 12pm to 5pm

Another shop I was too sick to visit. However I did go to their massive booth at Madfest. They had a ton of English language manga, ranging from stuff published in the late 1990’s until present, a good selection of local and region 1 (USA) DVDs, some of which were from the early to mid 2000’s, and a ton of figures, however most US superhero stuff, not much in the way of anime figures. They are currently located in an industrial area which is a little bit hard to get to. I think if you’re on the hunt for old out of print manga, it might be worthwhile making a trip out to Bayswater.

Anime Town

Address: 728 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
Phone: (03) 9913 4754
Opening Times: Everyday 10am to 4:30pm, closed Monday

Yet another store that I went to on the Friday I was down there and discovered it was closed for the day. I’m not sure how safe Brunswick is, but god the area looked relatively run down. Anyway I could see from the outside that pretty much half of the shop is dedicated to selling Gundam plastic model kits. Down the back of the store is a table which I’m sure is used to build Gundam kits. Their face book page states that they provide “free painting facilities”. Not 100% sure what that means exactly; is it just a place to paint or do they have airbrushes you can use? The other half of the store is mostly figures; a lot of Nendoroids, Frame Arm Girls, a lot of plush toys, some crane game prizes, and the usual range of figures from manufacturers such as Good Smile and Alter. The prices seem comparable to other shops in Melbourne.

Gundam Universe
Address: 246 Huntingdale Road, Huntingdale
Phone: (03) 8555 4563
Opening Times: Everyday 12pm to 5pm, closed Monday and Tuesday

Due to the hours this shop keeps and the fact it takes over 45 minutes to get there via train from the city, I never even bothered attempting to see this shop. As the name implies, Gundam plastic model kits as well as accessories and hobby supplies are the main things sold here. It was a bit of  shame as the store really sounds interesting. They also sell an extensive range of Japanese card games and have a space for customers to play the games in the shop. The store also holds “build meets” and late social events for Gundam builders. From what I could see this shop is a labour of love for the owner. However it seems to be sporadically closed for lengthy periods due illness or other difficulties the owner seems to be having. The opening times on the days the shop also seems to vary, so it’s probably best to check their Facebook page before heading out to Huntingdale.

And that’s it for Melbourne. Certainly a lot more places for anime fans to shop and socialise than Sydney, that’s for sure. And despite the fact all of the small hobby shops selling bootleg resin garage kits (and bootleg fansubs and commercial tapes) back in the 1990’s have disappeared, I’m really pleased to see such a strong fanbase that still makes models still exists. Luckily most of the shops in this guide are located within the CBD; however the few which are out in the suburbs are generally worth visiting.

This will probably be my final anime shopping guide, unless I make a few more trips to other countries or decide to revisit the places I’ve been in a few years times. Despite the fact it is generally easier to buy merchandise online, nothing beats the thrill you get hunting for items you want from actual physical shops. I suspect that in the future a lot of retail spaces for anime will vanish as they just won’t be able to compete with large online shops overseas. Just make sure you visit and buy from these shops before they disappear so you don’t regret it later.

Anime DVDs You May Have Missed: “Marmalade Boy”

Japanese Title: Marmalade Boy (TV), Marmalade Boy the movie
Publisher: Tokyopop (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 76 episodes x 24 mins (TV), 30 mins (movie)
Production Date: 1994 – 1995
English Version Release Date: 27 April 2004 – 26 April 2005
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes, 2017 Eastern Star/Discotek DVD reissue

Note: Originally published on the "Lost World of Anime" blog in 2009. Revised version republished on the "Anime Archivist" blog in March 2014.

When I went to my first local anime club screenings in the mid 1990’s, I was exposed to a number of new genres, including anime aimed squarely at girls and young women. Some of these release included “Magic Knight Rayearth”, “Please Save My Earth”, “Fushigi Yugi”, and of course this title, “Marmalade Boy”. Now with the majority of attendees being male weaned on sci-fi and action anime which was pretty much all that was available in video stores, you can imagine that this shoujo romantic teen comedy was bit of a shock to the system for a lot of us, me included. Initially I sort of dismissed the show, but after a couple of years becoming a little more mature and with further exploration and understanding of the many genres within Japanese animation, I have really come to appreciate this title and love it for its drama and characters. Before I get into why I enjoy this title so much, here’s a little commentary on the story;

Miki Koishikawa is an ordinary teen girl pretty much living an ordinary life. After her parents return from a holiday in Hawaii, they both cheerfully announce that they’re getting divorced. As if the shock of her normally loving parents parting ways wasn’t bad enough, her parents then inform her that not only are they going to swap partners with the Matsuura’s, a couple they met on their holiday, but all of them are going to be living together under the one roof! The absurdity of it all is too much for Miki to take. But still Miki agrees to have dinner with her parents and the Matsuura’s. The Matsuura’s son, Yuu, also attends. He makes an immediate impression on Miki. He’s cute and the same age as Miki.

Although she completely opposes the arrangement, Miki finally relents and the two families move into a new house as one. Unfortunately Miki takes an immediate dislike an to Yuu as he comes off as a bit aloof and he likes to tease her. But soon she begins to fall for him, and Yuu seems to be reciprocating her feelings. Adding to the already complex situation is that Yuu will be attending Miki’s school. The inevitable happens and the entire school finds out about the situation. Miki is living with a boy under the same roof! Eventually the misunderstandings are explained, but new problems arise as Miki’s male friend, Ginta Suou, becomes jealous and suspicious of Yuu. Ginta’s relationship history goes back to their first days of high school. Miki once tried to give a love letter to Ginta in an attempt to express her feelings to him, but the letter was discovered by his friends, and Ginta was put on the spot and felt he had to deny any feelings for Miki in front of them, even though he really liked her. Unfortunately Miki overheard the conversation and although things were eventually smoothed over, romance between the two of them seems destined to never happen. Well at least in Miki’s mind. Ginta still has feelings for her.

The ghosts of Yuu’s romantic past also come back to haunt him. His ex-girlfriend from his old school, Suzuki Arimi, shows up to steal him away from Miki. When Arimi sees that the task is more difficult than she initially thought, she starts to date Ginta in attempt to make Miki jealous and to take her focus off of Yuu. But Arimi has to deal with her fellow schoolmate, Tsutomu Rokutanda, who has had a crush on her for a long time. Despite repeated rejections from Arimi, the not very bright Tsutomu keeps on trying to woo her. To make matters worse, Ginta is Tsutomu’s cousin and the situation already adds fire to a long rivalry that is already going on between them. The fact that Tsutomu now sees Ginta as a rival in love only intensifies things between them with Tsutomu making absurd challenges over Arimi to win her from Ginta, something that Ginta doesn’t really want to deal with as he’s not really interested in her or the challenges.

Yuu also has to deal with Suzu Sakuma, a very cute teen model whom Yuu meets on the set of commercial that Miki’s mother asks him to co-star in. Suzu is smitten with Yuu and won’t take no for an answer. She attempts to throw as many spanners in the works in Miki and Yuu’s relationship. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Miki and Yuu have to go to great lengths to keep their relationship secret from their parents. But a shocking discovery about one of the family members threatens to permanently end their relationship. And to top it off, if Miki and Yuu’s family life wasn’t complex enough, Miki’s best friend, Meiko Akizuki, is secretly dating her teacher Shin’ichi Namura.

“Marmalade Boy” began as a manga created by Wataru Yoshizumi (who also wrote “Ultramanic”) in 1992 and was published in the shoujo anthology “Ribbon Magazine”. The anime version is part of an unofficial trilogy of 1990’s shoujo anime series produced by Toei Animation colloquially known at the “trendy trilogy”. All three to a degree mimicked Japanese TV dramas and are considered a high water mark for shoujo anime. The other two shows were “Neighbourhood Story” (based on the manga by Ai Yazawa, who is better known in the western world for her follow up series “Paradise Kiss”) and “Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango)”. The manga and the anime have a bit of a nutty set up to the story. I mean what parents in their right mind would do such a thing as to get remarried to another married couple and live under the same roof together? Amusingly most of the time the story portrays the teens as the ones with their heads screwed on, while the adults are a bit clueless, especially Miki and Yuu’s parents.

Once you get past the absurd set up, this is truly a great show to watch. Throughout the entire 76 episode series, Miki and Yuu’s relationship is tested at every turn. Once either Miki or Yuu fight off a potential suitor (who more often than not intentionally or unintentionally cause misunderstandings of rather innocent events), another shows up. You might think this would become boring after a while but it doesn’t. The characters have a real depth to them and situations are full of great drama, but thankfully not too overly melodramatic. Most of Miki and Yuu’s rivals in love have great personalities and back stories, some of which diverge into their own little side stories not involving the two main characters. Suzuki Arimi and Ginta’s relationship is one of the more pleasing side stories presented with Ginta caught between Miki, the girl he first loved and the more outgoing, cute and forceful Arimi. Arimi herself has a similar problem with Yuu, but soon sees Ginta’s charms, even though their initial relationship is a ruse to make Miki jealous. But it isn’t all teen drama. There’s some adult drama with Namura’s work colleague Ryoko Momoi. She has had a crush on him since they met in school, alas he’s in love and is a having a relationship with Meiko, one of his students.

There’s also a ton of very well developed secondary characters who step up in an attempt to take either Miki or Yuu from each other. There’s Kei Tsuchiya who works in the same ice cream shop as Miki and is a piano virtuoso who has run away from his music career. Anju Kitahara is a sickly girl from Yuu’s childhood who also threatens to tear Miki and Yuu apart. The show was a runaway success on TV and unsurprisingly material from the manga soon ran out and quite a few new characters and storylines appeared. The major one is towards the latter part of the series where an American exchange student, Michael Grant, comes to stay with Miki and Yuu. This leads into another arc where Yuu leaves Japan to study architecture at a school in New York which really tests the relationship. This is probably the weakest part of the series, mainly due to the rather shallow and unlikeable Michael. Also dragging things down is that some of the American characters seem rather undeveloped. Unlike the other love rivals in the series, Michael seems really self-centred with few redeeming features and isn’t really believable as a character. Luckily the last few episodes return to some serious and very well done shoujo drama.

To be honest, it came as a real shock to me when it was announced that Marmalade Boy would be getting an English language release. It’s the last anime I’d expect to get a commercial subtitled release, let alone receive an English dub. Tokyopop dubbed the entire series and released it in four very attractive and solid boxed digipak sets labelled “The Ultimate Scrapbook”. I’m not sure where the scrapbook reference comes from as there’s no reference in the TV series to any scrapbook of any kind. Even the 30 minute 1995 movie which recounts how Yuu met Miki for the first time is included in the last box set. I find it to be some sort of a miracle that any sort of commercial English language release was even considered, let alone the entire series and movie being released. The Tokyopop version does have some audio problems on the Japanese side with a few episodes sounding rather muffled, and one of the latter episode’s video doesn’t look too crash hot. But overall it’s a great release. I don’t think we could have expected better. The extras are virtually non-existent save for some Tokyopop created ones. One of the more notable ones is an audio commentary by the English dub cast. Usually I find most of these commentaries to be awful as nearly all the time the cast either has no idea of the background of the show (despite actually dubbing it) or they don’t care and make light of the show in a nasty way. Well the commentaries presented on these discs are a refreshing change. While the cast do make a bit of fun of the show, it’s done with respect for the material and most importantly it’s as funny as hell. In one commentary, Miki’s voice actor, Michelle Ruff, describes Miki’s diary, which she always writes in at the beginning of the early episodes, as her “little book of neurotises”.

Now apart from Meiko and Namura’s rather, uh, unconventional and maybe illegal relationship, Marmalade Boy is pretty much “G” rated. There’s barely a hint of sexual behaviour and only very, very vague references to sex, and then only very occasionally. Most of the time they’re playing tennis when they’re not sorting out their mostly platonic relationships. It’s all so middle class, neat and clean. However in 2005 a regional Florida TV station claimed that Miki and Yuu’s parents were “swingers” after a couple of parents discovered their 11 year old child had borrowed the manga from the local library and complained profusely. Oh the horror. One would have thought that Miki and Yuu’s parents were trying to help out their kids by making the divorce process less stressful, but no, it’s all about sex. I remember reading a post on one anime blog at the time which bizarrely defended the parents and TV station for airing the piece on the manga. But gee, let’s call a spade a spade here. There is no excuse for crappy tabloid journalism on a subject that wasn’t worthy of airtime. Who really cares what libraries have anyway. Plus it’s not their job to disallow any material they have to lend to anyone of any age. One would have thought the parents of the child who borrowed the manga would have gone and talked to the library first, but no, off to the hack of a tabloid reporter they went. There’s far, far worse things a kid could read than “Marmalade Boy”, but what do I know? I’m not a hack journalist looking for a news story on a slow day.

But back to the review; overall this is one fun little show. For some reason that I can’t put finger on, I find shoujo manga is better at dealing with relationships than romance manga for men and young adults. Perhaps it is because they don’t really dance around the issue, they get to the point. This is by far the best romance anime I have ever seen including “Kimagure Orange Road” and “Maison Ikkoku”. My favourite part of this series is that it almost never stops to take a breath. Once one problem is solved another suitor steps up to try and put a spanner in the works. On paper you would think this would be repetitive and dull, but the majority of characters and situations makes it almost always interesting through the entire 76 episodes. Initially I did find it a little hard to get into, but once I got past the somewhat ridiculous premise, I found to be really fun. Though the series is a little hard to find (especially the latter two box sets), I would recommend searching it out especially if you like any kind of romance in your anime. It’s a really underappreciated show that more anime fans should become acquainted with.

Fan Event Report: Madman Anime Festival Melbourne 2017

After going to two fan events in Japan earlier this year, I thought about checking out some local ones. However I am now in my mid 40's and haven't been to a real convention since 2005, a local one which only ran for a couple of years. I was a bit hesitant thinking that I'd be out of place there, seeing as I was generally not in the demographic these things are aimed at. But I decided to test the waters anyway. I also wanted to go to Melbourne again as I hadn't been for more than five years. Madman's anime festival (better known as “Madfest”) seemed to tick all the boxes. As soon as they announced Shinichiro Watanabe (director of “Cowboy Bebop” and “Samurai Champloo”) as one of the guests, I was sold.

The festival is now in its second year. Originally it began in Melbourne in September 2016 as part of local film and video distributor Madman Entertainment's 20th anniversary, with additional conventions in Brisbane and Perth earlier this year. I think it's a pretty good initiative from Madman as local conventions did die off a bit in the early 2010's, possibly due to the expense and trouble in running them, and partly because at the same time anime clubs started to become an endangered species across the country (the main fan organisations that ran the conventions). Certainly Melbourne has a very strong fan community as evidenced by the amount of anime related stores dotted around the city (surprisingly far more than Sydney). This year's festival was being held over the weekend of the 4th and 5th of November at the Melbourne Convention and Entertainment Centre in Southbank, on the Yarra River, only about a 10 minute walk from Southern Cross Station.

You could pick up your wristband early from the convention centre from 4pm Friday, which I did after I dropped my stuff of at my accommodation. I was sort of surprised that only around 30 or so people had also chosen to do this. I suppose I was sort of used to the crowds from Japanese events and expected it to be quite crowded. Regardless, I did arrive about an hour early on the Saturday for the 9:30am opening time. It was unusually cool for that time of year. The temperature didn't get above 15°C on Saturday, and barely got to 17°C on Sunday. However both days were mostly sunny and I personally enjoyed the cool weather. I had chosen the $290 VIP pass, which I know is pretty expensive, but came with a ton of extras, including early entry into the convention (half an hour). Again, I was a little surprised by the lack of people who had shown up at this time, maybe around 90 or so. There was some slight disorganisation by the Madman crew and I was unsure where to line up; there was a VIP entry sign outside the main hall hosting most of the events, yet people had lined up inside the hall near a barrier. I was given my VIP goodie bag which included; Mai Wish maid and butler cafe clear file, an Animelab premium three month voucher, a $50 Madman voucher (for online purchases), a Vicroads faux Japanese licence plates poster (more on that later), a festival t-shirt, a festival branded cyalume glow stick, four single disc DVDs, a box of Pocky and a voucher for one piece of hot chicken at a local Asian take away food chain.

The early entry into the venue wasn't just about seeing all the vendors, displays or the artist's alley before everyone else, it gives you half an hour on getting signing session tokens for the two Japanese guests (Watanabe and seiyu Kana Ueda, most famous for Rin Tohsaka of the sprawling “Fate” franchise) and making bookings for the Mai Wish maid and butler cafe and “Attack on Titan” virtual reality game. There were a number of displays in the main hall including a “Cowboy Bebop” one which included mostly setting materials, copies of cels against backgrounds, life sized standees of the main characters and a shooting game. There was also a small “Your Name” display which mostly had promotional artwork and focused on the characters, a similar “Sword Art Online” display and finally in the same vein, one for “Attack on Titan” which mostly focuses on the manga but included the virtual reality game. In addition to those, there was also a small display of life sized standees of the girls from “Love Live! Sunshine”.

There was also an Itasha display. These are cars with decals covering every panel with anime characters, hence the Japanese name of “painful car”, especially if you own it and drive it in public. Madman did put a call out to owners to register their car to be displayed, but in the end there were only two cars and one motorcycle. In part this was a promotion for Vicroads selling their Japanese style plates, aimed at people who love Japanese cars and fans of anime as seen in their promotional poster in the VIP merch bag which mimics "Initial D". I didn't see many people in the Vicroads booth. Most the time it was empty. Not even an Asuka Langley Soryu cosplayer mounting the “Evangelion” themed bike managed to bring in anyone.

The line for Ely at 9:30am on Saturday

Also in the hall were tons of merchants selling mostly anime related merchandise, but also food, car decals for Itasha, cosplay items, model kits and even a stall for Amnesty International. Even Madman's competitors, Hanabee and Siren Visual had booths, both next to each other. Rest areas such as one for Animelab and a gaming centre were also there as well as the previously mentioned obligatory artist’s alley. Much was made of the top cosplay star only known as Ely, who was one of the guests of honor. From Taiwan but currently working in and marketing her works to a Japanese fanbase, she held photography and autograph sessions and sold her self published photobooks. I decided to get one, but was a bit frustrated at the fact they were surprisingly hard to get. Not because they were sold out, but her table was either crowded or unattended by her or her small entourage. I tried again on Sunday only to find at 9:30am her table was not even set up (I note that Madman made sure everyone else in artist's alley was set up by that time). Eventually she showed up half an hour later, but her entourage seemed disorganised. Slightly annoyed, I sort of butted in to try to buy one and eventually settled for 70 page photobook that cost $40. It is a gorgeous piece of work full of great outfits, fantastic photography and a lot of cheesecake shots, but I was rather irked at lack of professionalism from her crew. It seems the sale of her photobooks was secondary to everything else including hobnobbing with other cosplay guests. This is odd because she’s right in artist’s alley and one would think the point of being there is to sell your works.

Also in the hall, right in the back corner was a stage which mostly had various fan groups such as a band which played mostly songs from "K-ON!", dance cover groups such as the "Love Live!" themed A-Muse (doing their best on a small stage not fit for nine people) and tutorials and panels from fans and professionals alike. Also in attendance was a dance/cover song idol group from Sydney called AGS 102. These seven (supposedly) Japanese girls perform at the Angel Garden cafe, which is part of rather popular worldwide chain of cheesecake shops from Fukuoka, Uncle Tetsu, which its Sydney shop often has a line up right out the door. Closer inspection of the flyer I given by one of the girls reveals that the chain is opening two shops in the CBD of Melbourne this month and next. That night I had a quick look online to see what it was all about and unsurprisingly discovered that it is nothing more than a blatant promotion for what is a terribly overrated cake shop and was originally trialed at their store in Toronto, Canada. I suspect the girls who make up the group aren't Japanese and are playing stereotypical idol roles, but I can't be sure (I know, I'm rather cynical). The group even brought merchandise to sell and took photos with fans.

At 10am the horde was let in. Despite what certain people in anime fandom will tell you about a lack of diversity in that fandom, I noted the con goers were a wide range of ages and ethnicities, divided pretty evenly between the sexes and even quite a number of families with young kids showed up. There were also a couple of con goers in wheelchairs and quite a number of poor fathers dragged along by teen daughters. Sure, the bulk of attendees were either teens or young adults of either descended from a white European or Chinese background, but you could not claim that the con didn't include a diverse range of people from society. It kind of annoys me when certain people within our fandom assert the opposite is true. Of course there was lots of cosplay everywhere and by the early afternoon of day one I noticed a few worn out teens who went too hard too soon, zonked out like zombies sitting against the hall’s walls. Madman claims the con draws in 10,000 people. Because the convention is spread out over a really wide area, it was a bit hard to tell, but I think over the two days they probably went close to that.

"Fate" fan meetup group photo with Kana Ueda and Ely

For me, the main objective of Saturday was getting my “Maria Watches Over Us” DVD box signed by seiyu Kana Ueda who played the lead character, Yumi Fukuzawa, in the series. About 60 or so people had lined up for autographs with only about five VIPs including myself. Kana came out in a red kimono (which is the predominant colour that her character Rin from the “Fate” series wears). She said hi, asked me if I wanted my name on the box and signed it. I thanked her in Japanese and it was all over really quickly. A couple of hours later there was a talk with Kana hosted by Andy Trieu of SBS Popasia and of course an interpreter. Though Kana was asked about and mostly talked mostly about the “Fate” franchise, which I really don’t have any interest in, it was still quite entertaining hearing about her work as a seiyu. The fans loved it as well. Afterwards a Q&A session was held with questions from audience members. This was all fairly normal until a transgendered young woman took her turn and talked about how she was bullied because of who she is. Her conversation then immediately nose-dived into quite disturbing ranting and raving about her suicidal thoughts and talk about self-harm. She was cut off, but Kana responded eloquently and with great empathy saying to the young woman will always be remembered by her and not to give up on life. I was really impressed at how she and the interpreter defused the situation not only calmly and quickly, but didn't brush her off at all. I really hope the young woman in question gets some help for the problems she's going through. Later in the afternoon there was a fan gathering right outside the convention centre between the Yarra river and the pier where the Polly Woodside is permanently docked. Kana and Ely posed for a group photo with the “Fate” cosplayers.

Next on my list to do was Shinichio Watanabe's talks (again hosted by Andy Trieu with the interpreter). The first one on Saturday was a general overview of his work and the second session the following day focused on “Cowboy Bebop”. Most of the stuff Watanabe talked about is pretty much in the public domain already. However he did say one of the reasons he wanted to come to Melbourne was because of the music scene here and he wanted to find some inspiration for a new project he was working on. Watanabe said not to be surprised if you see bits of Melbourne in his new project. Other titbits I learnt were that “Terror in Resonance” was delayed three years due to the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami (because of the nuclear references) and Bruce Lee was partly an inspiration for Spike in “Cowboy Bebop” (with “Enter the Dragon” being Watanabe's favourite film). Watanabe also recounted a story from the production of “Blade Runner Black Out 2022” where a producer asked him to remove sequence with mushroom clouds because he thought North Korea might bomb US if they see it. Watanabe pretty much ignored the request. He also said he was a bit wary of going to Madfest as he thought the name of the con might mean the attendees might be a bit crazy, and due the fact his only real contact with Australian culture was the “Mad Max” films. At the second autograph session for Watanabe which I attended on Sunday, there was a ton of people there. I had my “Macross Plus: Movie Edition” Japanese movie programme signed. Watanabe was really intrigued and initially didn't know what it was or where it came from. I showed him the reverse cover of the program which had a visual for the short movie “Macross 7: The Galaxy is Calling Me”, which was was paired with the “Macross Plus” movie in Japanese cinemas. This amused him and he wanted to know where I got it.

Ladybeard and Andy Trieu on stage

The other big guest was alt-idol/wrestler and expat Australian, Ladybeard. I had always been rather dismissive of his shtick and considered him to be a bit of a silly novelty. However I caught the last 30 minutes of his scheduled talk while waiting to see another guest and realised he was quite a genuine guy and wasn’t projecting some cynical one dimensional persona as a gimmick. He recounted how crossdressing was part of his life before his persona as Ladybeard. He began crossdressing as 14, later became a crossdressing pro wrestler and stuntman in Hong Kong, then went to Japan, without really knowing the language to try his luck. He eventually formed the alt-idol group Ladybaby which incorporated death metal, and most recently a new group called Deadlift Lolita with fellow wrestler and gravure model Reika Saiki. The following Q&A session included another transgendered young woman who praised him for his non-conforming gender presentation. Ladybeard told the audience about growing up as a teen and young adult in Adelaide where he wore female clothes to parties and due to his outgoing and loud personality was always attracted the attention of alpha male types who wanted to beat him up. He also told crowd that transgender idols manage to carve their own niche in the underground idol culture in Japan and are accepted there. He later announced that he would be touring Australia in 2018 as part of a promotion for an upcoming documentary called “Big in Japan” which he appears in and he'll be playing Falls Festival in January.

On Sunday there was a 45 minute Ladybeard concert. I missed the first 15 minutes due to the Watanabe autograph session and the fact I thought I wouldn't be able to get in. I tried my luck anyway and was treated to a bizarre mish-mash of part wrestling match (including audience participation to help finish off Ladybeard’s opponent), part idol concert and part death metal concert, complete with a sampling of songs from Ladybeard's short musical career including covers of songs from “Love Live!” and a metal rendition of Justin Bieber's “Baby”. The crowd loved it. One thing I noticed with this convention is how idol culture has seeped deeply into anime fandom in this country. Not only did we have AGS 102, Ladybeard and various idol themed fan performances, one of the recent Aqours concerts was screened (they're the real idols/seiyu behind the “Love Live! Sunshine” anime). A number of fans arrived in Aqours branded happi coats and tour t-shirts as well. There was also several anime films screened including the latest in the “Fate” franchise (attended by Aniplex producer Atsuhiro Iwakami and Kana Ueda), “No Game No Life: Zero” and “Mary and the Witch's Flower”. The first part of the live action “JoJo's Bizare Adventure” film series was also screened.

Madman National Cosplay Championship Final

There was also the obligatory cosplay. I managed to fit into two cosplay performances; the Cosplay Parade on Saturday afternoon and the Madman National Cosplay Championship Final on Sunday afternoon. The former was a less formal affair with a guy cosplaying a character from “Overwatch” (sorry, not sure which one) dedicating it to his father who recently died. The cosplay championship final naturally had some really high production values with full on skits and video on the screen overhead. The winner, a young woman from New Zealand who cosplayed as Naruto Uzumaki, won an all expenses trip to Japan. A lot of the time I don't fully understand the subculture of cosplay within the gaming and anime community and it feels rather insular, but it was fun enough to watch anyway. The only guest I didn't really bother looking into was Bryce Papenbrook, an English voice actor who's most famous for his portrayal of Eren Jaeger in “Attack on Titan”. I caught the end of the two scheduled Q&A sessions he gave during the convention and was impressed at how he wowed his fans.

Fan group Doubutsu Chatto performing anisong covers

The schedule over the two days of Madfest was pretty packed and I really had to pick and choose what I was going to see. For example the Kana Ueda talk and Q&A sessions clashed with the Watanabe autograph sessions, as did some fan performances and gatherings and even some film screenings. In most cases I had to dump the film screenings and fan performances to see guests. There was also really good fan performances such as the impromptu mini concert prior to the convention opening on the Sunday morning, with a Ryuko Matoi (“Kill la Kill”) cosplayer with a clarinet and a Kamina (“Gurren Lagann”) cosplayer with a tuba playing a number of pop hits (starting with the Cantina band song from “Star Wars: A New Hope”) as the very appreciative crowd waited to be let in.

Overall, I really had a lot of fun over the two days of Madfest. Perhaps things could have gone a bit more smoothly and I sort of wish so much competing stuff wasn’t packed into such a small timeframe, but these are minor quibbles. Looking through previous conventions in this country, I really wish I had been proactive over the last five years and gone to more. I will most certainly on the lookout for other conventions around the country and will probably end up going to quite a few more in the next couple of years.