Dead Anime Magazines in English: “Animag”

Publisher: Animag, Pacific Rim Publishing Company, Malibu Graphics
Format: A4
Genre/Type: Anime, some manga, some convention coverage
Years Active: 1987 – 1993
Issues Published: 15

Note: Originally published on the “Anime Archivist” blog May 2014, based on previous versions published on the "Lost World of Anime" website and blog in 2004 and 2009.

As the 1980’s wore on, anime in North America slowly increased its popularity almost by stealth. In the mid 1980’s, a group called Animation of Nippon Inter-Mediary Exchange, or A.N.I.M.E. for short, had sprung up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and by 1987 up to 200 people were showing up to monthly club meetings. Out of this group in October 1987 emerged not only the debut issue of the second English language fan published English anime magazine, but arguably the best anime magazine to be published in North America; Animag.

Started primarily by Matthew Anacleto, Ann Schubert, and Dana Fong, the debut issued featured articles on anime that were quite popular amongst fans in North America at the time such as “Area 88”, “Iczer 1”, “Laputa: Castle in the Sky” and of course “Gundam”. Like most fan publications of the time and being in era where there was no English language anime home video market to speak of, all of the articles were essentially synopsises. The second issue followed the same format as the first, but with a couple of colour pages and colour centrefold type posters at each end of the magazine’s cover. The magazine also increased its page count from 36 pages to 44 pages. A couple more familiar names joined the magazine at this stage including Toren Smith and Toshifumi Yoshida who would latter work for Viz (and become the husband of Trish Ledoux). The third and fourth issues in 1988 brought about a number of changes. Trish Ledoux (of Animerica fame) joined as an associate editor in the third issue and would become editor the following issue. A news section was added in issue three and the following saw two new columns including a Q&A section with contributions from readers and Anime Ja Nai (“It’s Not Anime”, a title taken from the opening theme song from “Gundam ZZ”). Anime Ja Nai began as series of articles looking to various aspects of anime culture and production, but soon devolved into an Animage style character poll and eventually morphed into a humorous look at anime. I think Animag also was the first anime English language magazine to publish manga as an insert, with sample pages of “Grey” placed in issue four and another insert containing a sample of the manga “Appleseed” in the following issue.

By the fifth issue in 1988, the magazine was published by Pacific Rim Publishing Company and in the process received wider distribution. A number of regular features began this issue including Mecha File and in the following issue a regular look at manga called Mongo’s Manga and a column on model making called Animated Plastic. A new insert/newsletter called Ronin Network appeared in the magazine from issue six. This was a newsletter that contained fan club information as well as giveaways and additional anime news. Initially it came free with the magazine, but soon required a separate subscription. Unfortunately due to rising costs the newsletter disappeared after a few issues. While the magazine continued to mainly contain anime synopses, other articles began to slowly appear such as Frederick L. Schodt’s article on robot icons in issue five and an article on Osamu Tezuka in issue seven. Around the late 1988 and into 1989, the magazine had begun interviewing some big names in the anime industry; Leiji Matsumoto, Yoshiyuki Sadamato, voice actor Maria Kawamura and even Carl Macek.

As the years progressed some familiar names would join the staff roster. Along with Trish Ledoux and Toshifumi Yoshida, other future Animerica staff members such as Mark Simmons and Julie Davis also joined the magazine. With this roster of talent, as you can imagine the articles were very detailed and well written. A magazine of this standard was extremely useful to an English speaking fandom that for the most part could not speak a word of Japanese. Especially since this was an era with little internet usage, practically no fansubs or even commercial video tapes, let alone anything resembling a North American anime industry. For a lot of fans of that era, the only time they saw anime was on horribly expensive laserdiscs imported from Japan, or on snowy multiple generation video tapes, or on TV as “Robotech” or “Star Blazers”. It’s safe to say that the magazine was an absolute godsend to many fans. Apart from the articles, the most striking thing about Animag was its cover artwork. Unlike most magazines that just use promotional artwork supplied by anime companies, nearly all of Animag’s covers were drawn and painted by US fans. A lot of them, especially the early covers, are just spectacular and I’m sure a lot of Japanese anime magazines would be proud to have the artwork on their front cover.

1991 saw a number of changes. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but the magazine left Pacific Rim and with issue, volume 2, issue 1, Malibu Graphics became the publisher. Matthew Anacleto became editor once again (for a single issue), with no sign of Trish Ledoux in the staff credits. This was around the same time Viz began publication of Animerica, so one can only assume she was working for Viz by now. Some posts on rec.arts.anime.misc suggest Ledoux did work on the final three issues of the magazine, albiet uncredited. Dana Kurtin took over editorial duties for the final two issues of the magazine. Apparently the move from Pacific Rim wasn’t exactly amicable and there were some allegations the magazine had been subjected to, or at least threatened with legal action. A number of posts on rec.arts.anime.misc from posters claiming to be linked with Animag staff refute these allegations. Another post from October 1992 included excerpts from an letter to a subscriber of Animag from Pacific Rim head honcho Jeffry Tibbetts. In the letter, Tibbetts laid out his side of the story and placed the blame for the split squarely on Yoshida and Anacleto. Tibbetts also claimed he sicced his attorney on to them, apparently to no effect. Whether that’s true or not, I really have no idea. What I do know is that the situation with Animag apparently had unintended consequences for another magazine in Pacific Rim’s stable, Markalite magazine (a magazine I’ll be looking at some time in the future). Allegedly Pacific Rim had cut and run leaving Markalite out in the cold and effectively killing off the magazine as the publisher was taking care of their subscriptions and the cash flow.

However the magazine continued to survive through 1991 and on to 1992. The final three issues included articles on the anime that were popular at the time; “Nadia of the Mysterious Seas”, “Record of Lodoss Wars” and “Legend of Galactic Heroes” as well as a smattering of older, mostly mecha anime. Early anime conventions such as Animecon ’91 and Anime Expo ’92 were reported on in great detail. A short lived video gaming column was introduced as well as a couple of articles on western animation. In 1993 with the volume 2, issue 3 magazine finally published after a long delay, Animag just seemed to implode. Why this happened is a bit of a mystery. There’s very little in the public domain which explains its fate. I did read some messages on rec.arts.anime which allege that the final issue was delayed when one ex-staff member had threatened to sue the magazine over the use of a photograph. Also around that time Viz was launching their new anime magazine Animerica. We know a lot of staff that worked on Animag would later write for Animerica. Who knows if that had any influence on its demise?

It’s very unfortunate and ironic that a high quality anime magazine as Animag would disappear at the very moment anime conventions, fandom and an industry had just stated to make its presence noticed by the community at large. The final issue of Animag included advertisements from the main players in this new emerging industry such as A.D .Vision, Animego and Central Park Media, as well as an article on US Renditions.

Flipping through the magazines as I write this article, the thing which sticks out like nobody’s business is the really heavy focus on mecha and other related “shonen” type anime. Sure the magazine had the usual articles you’d expect to find such as synopses of Hayao Miyazaki and Ghibli films, but practically nothing on anime or manga which was aimed at young women or girls. I suppose this was a sign of the times. The fact was a lot of anime fans in the late 1980’s to the early 1990’s were mostly interested in sci-fi type anime and overwhelmingly male, so I suspect it wasn’t the case that the staff were ignoring those genres. The second thing which struck me was the fact the magazine continued to be predominantly printed in black and white for its entire life. Again, I suppose this shouldn’t be too surprising. US anime fandom was still in its infancy at this time. And like a lot of magazines of this period you can dig though and find a fair wack of information which you certainly can’t find on the web. For example issue three has an excellent article on Gainax’s pilot film for the unmade “R20: Galactic Airport” movie. A latter article on Animecon ’91 has a side bar on the child killer Tsutomu Miyazaki (the infamous “Otaku” killer) and the impact it had on the Japanese anime industry, though from what I’ve read elsewhere about the case maybe some of the information on Miyazaki in this article should be taken with a grain of salt.

I probably put Animag as an equal second (with Manga Max) in terms of my all-time favourite anime magazines (Anime UK/FX is my favourite English language magazine of all time). Though it certainly didn’t have the slickness in terms of design like many magazines which followed it, Animag was certainly a lot more substantial than most of them. The articles were brilliant and I still refer back to the magazine for info occasionally. I’d really recommend hunting down copies of the magazine if you’re into anime nostolgia and old 1980’s mecha shows. Copies of almost every issue are quite plentiful and cheap on eBay.

Anime Music Video Compilations: “Please Save My Earth Music Image Video ~The Passing of the Golden Age~”

Publisher: Victor Entertainment
Format: VHS and Laserdisc, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue
Length: 27 minutes
Original Release Date: 24 February 1995
Animation Exclusive to this Release: Yes
Other Sources (Japanese unless noted): Please Save My Earth Volume 4 (DVD 2001), Please Save My Earth DVD Box Set (DVD 2003, Korea)
Currently Availability (as of writing): Out of Print

Note: Originally published on the “Anime Archivist” blog May 2014.

In my early years of anime fandom, the only thing I was really interested in was stuff which featured either robots or sci-fi titles. I suppose I have “Star Blazers” and “Robotech” to blame for that. Admittedly there wasn’t much else available in English at the time. It wasn’t until I started going to my local anime club (well it was more like casual monthly screenings rather than a club of any sort), that I discovered “shoujo”. While “Magic Knight Rayearth” was the title that initially got me interested (due to the fantasy and robot elements), it was the six part OVA “Please Save My Earth” that sold me on anime that was primarily aimed at girls and young women. While it does have sci-fi and fantasy elements, at its core it is about the relationships between seven (mostly) high school aged teens as they come to terms with their former lives. In order to discuss the contents of the music video compilation, I will be giving away a bit of the plot and possibly the ending of the manga. So if you don’t like spoilers, don’t read any further.

The anime version, released as a six part OVA from late 1993 to late 1994, covers up to the ninth volume of the manga (which eventually ended after 21 volumes), but does skip a number of sub plots and ends without resolving a number of plot points. The final volume of the manga wasn’t released until August 1994, one month before the final OVA volume was released. The story is set in suburban Tokyo, where we meet teenager Alice Sakaguchi who has recently moved with her family from Hokkaido. Unfortunately for the sweet and demure Alice, she is being terrorised by her next door neighbour, a seven year old named Rin Kobayashi. Even worse is the fact is often asked to babysit him by her neighbours. After an outing to the zoo with Rin, Alice runs into two of her classmates, Jinpachi and Issei. Concerned that Alice may have misinterpreted a conversion she accidently overheard at school the previous day, the pair explains that they were talking about a series of shared dreams they’ve had since primary school. In the dreams they are members of a group of alien scientists living on the moon who are studying the Earth. In the pair’s recent dreams they have discovered their alter egos are lovers. Both Jinpachi and Issei are male, but in the dreams Issei is a woman.

Later Alice is asked yet again to babysit Rin. Rin acts up and teases Alice about her interest in Jinpachi. Alice chases him to the balcony where Rin straddles the railing. Enraged at Rin’s constant teasing, Alice eventually slaps him. Horrifyingly Rin loses his balance and falls several stories below. Luckily he survives, saved by branches of a tree, but remains in a coma for several days. Alice is mortified at what she has done. Rin later awakens with the realisation he has been dreaming that he is also one of the alien scientists on the moon; an engineer named Shion. Rin’s mother later visits Alice and her family. She is there to relay Rin’s request that he and Alice get engaged. Alice faints when she hears this and has a “moon dream” as well; she is botanist named Mokuren. Alice tells Jinpachi and Issei about her moon dream as Mokuren and they decide to seek out others who may be experiencing the same dreams. They place an ad in the classifieds section of a supernatural phenomenon magazine called “Boo”. Not long after they are contacted by two people; Daisuke Dobashi and Sakura Kokusho who confirm details seen in the other’s dreams. The pair explains to the group that they believe they are all reincarnations of alien scientists who once lived on the moon. Meanwhile Rin has begun to act in much or adult way. He has also seemingly developed psychic powers and uses them to threaten a biker gang leader called Takashi, who is the son of a rich and influential family. Takashi asks Rin what he wants. Rin demands that Takashi give him Tokyo Tower.

And now on to the music videos;

“Prologue: ~Kiniro no Toki Nagarete~ (The Passing of the Golden Age)” performed by Akino Arai

Before I start, I must mention that while most people assume the entire soundtrack of the series was composed by Yoko Kanno (of “Cowboy Bebop” and “Macross Plus” fame), that’s not true. Only three of the eight tracks here have any involvement from Kanno. This particular track was composed and arranged by Kanno with lyrics by Akino Arai. It first appeared on the “Please Save My Earth Image Soundtrack Volume 3” which was released in November 1994. The video begins with a live action shot of falling gold dust, then static shots of the galaxy, which then segues into live action shots of the Earth seen from space. The video then shifts to new still images of Mokuren singing in a festival on her home planet with younger versions of the scientists watching on in a crowd, and then images of her growing up. Footage of Mokuren and Shion together culled from the OVA ends the video with dialogue saying how much she would like to visit Earth.

“Mikadzuki no Shindai (Crescent Moon’s Cradle)” performed by Akino Arai

The second video uses another Akino Arai song, though this time it is entirely her own composition. The song originally appeared on “Please Save My Earth Original Soundtrack Volume 1” which was released in January 1994. Like the first video, this one contains new animation, though these are mostly still shots. It begins with dialogue from Mokuren’s father who is talking to her about the trees and flowers on their planet. The video essentially chronicles Mokuren growing up as a child, though you would most definitely needed to have read the manga to understand what is going on the in the video. Spoiling the plot for the manga, Mokuren was born with a mark on her forehead which means she is a Kiches Sarjalian, a kind of holy person. At age three she was taken away to be raised as a Kiches Sarjalian in a government facility is not allowed any human contact. The video also depicts the father of Mokuren’s only friend, who is a circus performer, being badly injured in his act. Though the Kiches Sarjalian have the power to heal the wounded, they do not receive this power until later in life. The young Mokuren feels guilty she could not save her friend’s father. The video also features new dialogue from a Kiches Elder called Sairochou which I think features in the 15th volume of the manga.

“Yume no Sumika (House of Dreams)” performed by Rie Hamada

This song by Rie Hamada was originally released on “Please Save My Earth Original Soundtrack Volume 1” in January 1994. It is sung in a rather childish and sing-song way. In fact some parts of really do sound like a children’s song. Because of this I find it to be the most annoying song in the compilation. Unfortunately there isn’t much to say about this music video. The video itself focuses in the on the relationship between Alice and Rin and of course Mokuren and Shion. Most of the footage is culled from the OVAs and contains no new animation at all. In fact it repeats the new animation previous found in the preceding videos. Of note is the footage from the OVA of Shion as a child with his temporary foster parent La Zlo and his strange giant cat called Kyaa (easily one of the best moments in the OVA). While it’s adequately edited, this is easily the most disappointing video in the compilation.

“Moon Light Anthem ~Enju 1991~” performed by Akino Arai

Unlike the other songs so far, the music used here predates the anime by five years. It comes from the “Please Save My Earth Image Album” which was released in August 1988, about a year after the manga began. Mostly a piano piece, it features new dialogue from Enju (who was reincarnated as Issei on Earth). In the video Enju walks with a friend in a snowy forest talking about going to the moon in order to study the Earth with her friend and fellow scientist Gyokulan. It’s bleedingly obvious that she has romantic feelings for Gyokulan. However in her reincarnation on earth, Enju is now male and this relationship can never be as Jinpachi (Gyokulan in his previous life) is also male and obviously has no romantic feelings for Issei, regardless of what happened in their past lives. Despite the cheap nature of the new animation (mostly still shots), it works quite well.

“Ring” performed by Gabriela Robin

The second Yoko Kanno track in this compilation with her alter ego Gabriela Robin providing vocal duties. This track first appeared on the “Please Save My Earth Image Soundtrack Volume 3” which was released in November 1994. The music is almost identical to the first video, “Prologue: ~Kiniro no Toki Nagarete~ (The Passing of the Golden Age)”. It’s almost like a reprise of that track. This video begins with Rin’s childhood up to the point of his fall from the balcony. It then switches to scenes of Shion’s relationship with Mokuren using the same animation from the first music video that was culled from the OVA. The video then focuses on Rin’s evil side culling shots from the psychic battle with Tamura, who is essentially Takashi’s confidant and bodyguard, and Tamura’s brother, Mikuro who has ESP. However the most interesting section of this music video is the new animation which depicts the ending of the manga, where (spoilers coming up…) Rin attempts to destroy the moon base using Tokyo Tower to transmit the order. The title of the song comes from the manga in which it is explained that “Ring” is apparently an alternate spelling of “Rin”.

“Tokete Yuku Jikan (Time Passes On)” performed by Hajime Mizoguchi

This track is an instrumental composition performed by Hajime Mizoguchi, who also worked on the soundtrack to “Vision of Escaflowne”. Mizoguchi was married to Kanno at the time but they divorced in 2007. The song is taken from “Please Save My Earth Image Soundtrack Volume 2” which was released in April 1994. Being completely instrumental, the audio is overlaid with dialogue from Mokuren. She discusses her dreams with Shion, such as her vivid dreams being a girl living on Earth. She tells him that she wishes for a future where the two of them can be together forever. While the majority of animation is taken from the OVAs for this video, part of it is taken from the new animation which features in the previous video “Ring”. There also seems to be a number of newly animated shots of Alice and Rin, but I think these have been taken from the theatrical version of the OVA.

“Toki no Kioku (Memory of Time)” performed by SEIKA
This is the beautiful end theme for the OVA series and the music and animation vary very little from what was seen in the OVA release. In fact the only difference in this version is that a shot of Alice and Rin looking out to the ocean has been replaced with a similar shot of Mokuren and Shion. The song was composed by Yoko Kanno with lyrics by Takako Nishikiori and ARION. It was first released on the “Please Save My Earth Original Soundtrack Volume 1” in January 1994.

“Epilogue: Etude ~Tensei Gensou~ (Etude ~ Fantasy of Reincarnation)” performed by Yuuji Nomi
This simple piano track was taken from the “Please Save My Earth Image Album” which was released in August 1988. The video is just the same “falling gold dust” live action shot taken from the first video with scrolling credits superimposed over the top of it. That’s it, there’s nothing else to say about it.

This compilation is one of my favourites. I loved the OVA series so much and the additional animation does fill in a bit of the story which was cut short in the OVA. Though having said that, you will still need to read the manga to figure out what the heck is going on. However like a lot of anime music video compilations, there’s just one problem with it; the cheapness of the new animation. But I suppose these kinds of releases don’t sell as many copies as the anime itself, so of course the budget is going to limited. It’s just that it’s REALLY limited at times. Most of the new material comprises of still shots, with occasional overlaid existing animation from the OVA or panning in an attempt to make it look less cheap. Like the OVA, the animation was produced by Production I.G, and as you’d expect its quality stuff – when there is actual real animation, not just still shots. The proper animated sequences look almost as good as what is in the OVA, especially in the video “Ring”. The music on the other hand is a little bit of a mixed bag. The Yoko Kanno tracks sound drop dead gorgeous of course, but a couple of the other tracks misfire. I found Rie Hamada’s “Yume no Sumika” to be particularly grating.

While Viz Media released both the manga and anime series, they didn’t release this compilation or the compilation film “From Alice to Rin-kun” which also contains a few more newly animated shots. The only real options are imports. Unfortunately it’s a little hard to come by. Occasionally laserdisc or VHS copies will pop up on Yahoo! Auctions Japan from as little as ¥500. Amazon Japan has second hand VHS copies in only “good” condition starting at ¥5,000. Victor Entertainment re-released the compilation movie and music videos on the fourth volume of the DVD release of the OVA in October 2001. Naturally it’s out of print and there’s no DVD box set or blu-ray re-release. The shocker is the price of that disc in the second hand market; ¥7,000 and above. There was also a Korean box set released in 2003 by a company called DVD Ani which included the music video compilation. While all of their titles have been legally licenced from Japanese companies, they had a nasty habit of adding English language material to their discs which they had no right to. Whether that bothers you or not, it’s your call. However that set is pretty much impossible to find.

While it is a pretty good anime music video compilation, due to the prices on the second hand market (and cheaper versions only being available in dead formats) I really think that this one can only be recommended for diehard fans of “Please Save My Earth”.

The Obscurities in the Western Connection Catalogue: “Galactic Pirates”

Release Date: 31 May 1994
Format: PAL VHS, English Dubbed
Runtime: 6 episodes x 25 mins (edited into three 47 min episodes)
Catalogue Numbers: WEST011, WEST012, WEST013
Japanese Title: Teki wa Kaizoku: Neko no Kyoen (The Enemy are Pirates: Banquet of Cats)
Japanese Production Date: 1989

In the short period Western Connection existed as an anime distributor, of the 15 or so titles in their catalogue, amazingly only two were English dubbed. It’s really bizarre especially when you consider that the environment they were operating in was the United Kingdom in the mid 1990’s. Island Records was the dominant force with their Manga Entertainment video label. While Island’s marketing plan was aimed a general audience (which boiled down to teenage boys looking for ultraviolent films), it’s really hard to imagine that Western Connection were deliberately aiming for the small anime fandom market in the UK wanting subtitled tapes of obscure OVAs and films. As I said in previous instalments, it was most likely a “buy a cheap licence, get it out cheap” mentality. And so we come to this title “Galactic Pirates”, an utterly obscure English dub of an equally obscure six part series, rejected by every other English language distributor it was offered to. The story behind the dub is perhaps a little more interesting than the anime itself, but I might as well give a rundown of the show;

Sometime in the future, somewhere out in space (well the anime’s not really too clear about when and where it’s set), we meet Apollo, an anamorphic alien cat who talks and can control minds. He’s rather angry that his bird shaped snacks he’s just bought won’t fly like they do in the TV commercial. Apollo is interrupted by his work partner, Latell, a normal human who is angry Apollo’s constant snacking and because he scoffed his box of chocolates that were given to him by a girl. A fight ensues and the space relaxation centre they’re in is damaged, causing the air, as well as everything else, to be almost entirely sucked out into the vacuum of space. Believe it or not these two are officers in the Pirate Control section of the Galactic Police. Their destruction of the centre is interrupted by one of the lower ranking officers Marsha, a young female cadet whom Latell has an interest in. But Marsha hates Latell, but loves Apollo, even though it’s blatantly obvious to everyone Apollo is the worse of the pair. Marsha asks the duo to report to their boss, who promptly sacks both them due to their performance in last case in which they caused almost a million dollars’ worth of damage and hundreds of complaints were made. Latell attempts to protest, but Apollo controls Latell’s emotions so he doesn’t do anything crazy, like shooting Apollo. Apollo quickly decides that if he can no longer hunt down pirates as a member of the Galactic Police, he’ll become a pirate himself. Before Latell gets a chance to pursue Apollo, his boss gives him a disc which contains details on a new mission for both of them (despite the fact he’s just sacked them).

In the meantime Apollo is in the process of stealing the duo’s space craft, Dola, (a class “A” artificial intelligence ship), but Latell manages to get on board before he launches. Tired of the gluttonous cat, he vows to kill him for losing their jobs, but soon quietens down when Dola tells him that there’s no record of them being dismissed from the Galactic Police. Latell’s mission is to investigate pirate connections with the Titan Movie Company, of which Apollo has apparently been asked to play a role in a 3D movie they are making (yes, I am aware that this story makes little sense). Dola warps into what they initially think is a 3D movie theatre near Saturn. But instead of a fake 3D projection of a battle, real pirate fighters begin to attack them. Dola is hit and they are forced to land on Titan. Latell and Apollo infiltrate the studio and discover the owner, Santos, strapped to a machine. Strangely he is beginning to turn into some sort of dragon-like creature. It’s the work of the C.A.T. System 86, an old forbidden computer system that invades people’s thought processes and can even turn people into other things, in this case a dragon. Latell and Apollo are attacked by what appear to be 3D characters from a movie, but are in fact robots controlled by pirates. While battling the robots, they discover a pirate ship which they believe is owned by the “Phantom Pirate” Yomei. However it launches before they have any chance of stoping it, and worse luck follows with pirates now attacking them. Somehow in the midst of all this chaos, the duo manage to escape with Santos, kill the pirates and force the pirate ship to crash, with a little help from Dola.

Later Marsha travels to Titan to deliver a holographic message to Latell and Apollo from their boss. After giving them a bizarrely excuse as to why he pretended to fire them (because the Titan Movie Company wanted to make Apollo a star?!), he explains that Yomei is planning to take over the solar system using the C.A.T. System 86. Only problem is that it is very unstable and it can even effect intelligent craft like Dola. However a man named Katz, who is working with the pirates has managed to make the system controllable. Their next mission will be to the Tohungas crater on Mars where Yomei is believed to be. Much to her surprise, the message also informs Marsha that she has been promoted to lieutenant and will be joining both of them on the mission. However before they take off, Apollo spots Yomei’s offsider, Jubilee, and decides to follow and arrest him in a illegally commandeered supply truck. Apollo discovers that Jubilee is going to kill Santos to stop him from talking and thwarts his plans by bombing his car. However this doesn’t kill Jubilee, it only makes him mad. This puts Apollo in a situation where is staring down certain death, however Marsha and Latell rush to save him. After a lengthy chase unfortunately Jubilee escapes with Yomei and the other pirates.

On Mars, the three Pirate Control offices end up playing baseball with the local Counter Crime police group (with Dola playing as well of course). Naturally this is a very clever ruse to hide the fact they’re here secretly to discover where the pirates are hiding the C.A.T. System 86. Due to their dislike of each other, fights break out between the two teams. Eventually weapons and power suits are in use and it degenerates into complete chaos as the local police fight themselves by accident. However peace somehow prevails, and at the end when a commemorative photo is taken, Latell discovers that the Counter Crime police are beginning to turn into cats. Latell orders Apollo to mind control both him and Marsha so they won’t transform. As they travel to the city, they find everyone has turned into cats. Even their ship, Dola is literally now a cat (albeit a flying one). Due to a factional split in Yomei’s group, the pirates have decided to use the Tohungas crater on Mars as a test ground for the C.A.T. System 86. The only other person not to have turned into a cat is a lieutenant called Petoria from the Counter Crime police group, whose utter disgust for Apollo has stopped his transformation. The situation is desperate. They must find out where the C.A.T. System 86 is on the planet and switch it off before it’s too late.

Unless you were a fan of anime and living in the UK in the mid 1990’s, I wouldn’t really be surprised if you’ve never heard of this series. Oddly enough in 1996 or so, I found the Western Connection tapes of the series in a mainstream video rental shop in the southern suburbs of Canberra. This is rather strange as the show has never been released in Australia. Upon closer inspection it was quite obvious that the tapes were copies (i.e. bootlegs). It seems as if the owner of the video store had copied the tapes and made colour photocopied the covers so he could rent it out. It wasn’t until two years later when I came across a VHS fansub of the series that I actually watched the show. The show is based upon a series of novels (nine currently) by award winning Japanese sci-fi novelist Chohei Kanbayashi of “Yukikaze” fame. Unlike that anime, “The Enemy are Pirates” is more comedy and action based, very much in the same vein as “Dirty Pair”. With the short number of episodes, most people would assume that this show is an OVA. Not so, it’s actually a TV series. Only two months after the station opened for business, satellite pay TV station Asahi Newstar screened the six part “The Enemy are Pirates” one episode a day between 26th December and 31st December 1989. It was later given a three part video release (two episodes per tape/laserdisc) in 1990.

The series is quite silly and illogical at times, but it is reasonably funny. But at the end of the day, it’s not what you’d call a memorable title. It’s not a classic by any stretch of the imagination. This version of the show though destroys most of the elements which made the original version fun to watch. The central problem here is clearly is the English dub. This rather obscure English dubbed version was made in the UK in the early 1990’s by Atlantic Post Productions and Quiet Storm Ltd with the usual cast of American and Canadian ex-pats and British actors putting on American accents. The dub was in part commissioned by French based European distribution company Ucore for the Japanese copyright holder, Kitty Films. As previously stated, I have been lucky enough to have seen the series in its original language a number of years before I acquired these dubbed tapes. I thank the long absent lord for that because if I had only seen the dub, I would have had a very hard time following the storyline. With awful scripting and at times quite dull, monotone acting, the English dub makes the show pretty much incomprehensible a good deal of the time. Probably the best element of the dub is the part of Apollo, played by an actor who thought that the character should sound like he came from the set of a 1970’s blacksploitaion flick. Apollo’s dialogue provides most of the humour in the dub (possibly some of it unintentional). At one point Apollo states that he’ll join the space pirates because he’ll be able to “…eat anything, just like a honkey”. I had to rewind the tape a couple times just to make sure I heard that right. The English script writer and translator, who goes under the bizarre pseudonym of “Dr. D. Shoop”, obviously loved the words “shit” and “arse” (though that should be “ass” as everyone has an American accent). Not five minutes go past without either word being said.

The dub seems to be hated universally. During the Kitty Film panel at the 1993 Anime Expo, Helen McCarthy stood up and voiced her displeasure of the dub while the panel played a tape of it. Everyone in attendance applauded her apparently. Maybe I’m being a bit narky here, but perhaps people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, as Helen had a hand in both the UK only released dubs of “Cat Girl Nuku Nuku” and “K.O. Century Beast Warriors”. Most sane people would say neither of those are a high water mark for English dubbing. Oddly the very next year when it came to reviewing the series Helen stated in Anime UK magazine that the show was “…dubbed adequately, if a little stilted”. In fact the series got a generally positive review. Strange, considering her outburst at the Kitty Film panel the previous year. If the copyright is correct on these tapes (which I have a feeling it wasn’t), Kitty Film had been trying to sell the series for three years before Western Connection picked it up and released the entire series in May 1994. The only changes they’ve made was their patented “snip-snip” to the opening and closing credits on each of the tapes to obtain their discount from the British Board of Film Classification (it’s more expensive if companies submit a tape with multiple episodes on it). So six episodes became three. Well at least the editing looks a little more professional than some of their latter releases. Surprisingly the artwork and design is quite nice on all three tapes. However the covers are printed on some really low grade paper stock, almost like butcher’s paper. For whatever reason, the tapes claim the show has a “18” rating, but the BBFC website states they got “15” and “PG” ratings. I am baffled as to why Western Connection would deliberately label their tapes “18”.

One of the more unusual elements in this show is the music. What a lot of people in the west don’t know is that if you’re a rock or pop star and your career dies, you can always head over to Japan and make some cash there (hence the term “Big in Japan”). Sometime in the late 1980’s ex-members of Saxon, Iron Maiden and Uriah Heep formed a band called Air Pavilion, headed over to Japan, and performed the opening, closing and insert tracks to the series. Air Pavilion fit into the “hard rock” genre, the stuff that late 1980’s commercial FM radio stations (the ones that had “black thunders filled with icy cold cans of coke” roaming your local city), just loved to play. So in other words the music is of the big-haired 1980’s hard rock variety, but still it’s still a lot better that the cutesy idol stuff of the period. Reading back on this review, I’ve probably made this show sound worse than what it truly is. In its original format, it’s a reasonably funny series, but this English version is quite horrid. Very occasionally the acting is passable, but the majority of it is truly shocking and really not helped by the rather clunky dialogue. The series was released as a box set on DVD in 2003 by Pioneer in Japan (now out of print), but did not come with the dub or English subtitles. So if you really want a legit copy of this series in English, these tapes are the only way to get it. I highly doubt this show will be released ever again.

Note: Originally published on the "Anime Archivist" blog May 2014, based on previous versions published on the "Lost World of Anime" website and blog in 2004 and 2009.

Anime DVDs You May Have Missed: “Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space”

Japanese Title: Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space
Publisher: Kinétique/Amuse (Japan)
Format: Region 2 DVD, NTSC, Japanese with some French and Mandarin Dialogue with optional English subtitles
Length: 92 minutes
Production Date: 2002
English Version Release Date: 23 May 2003
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

Note: Originally published on the "Anime Archivist" blog April 2014, based on a review originally written for and published on "animeondvd.com" in June 2003.

With advent of DVD, a small number of early Japanese releases contained English subtitles or an English dub. As you can imagine most of these titles were previously released in English, with most already available on DVD in the west. However there were a few films that had only toured the film festival circuit with no English language release in sight. Luckily in a few of those cases, Japanese distributors had the foresight to transfer the English subtitled script on to the DVD. In a few rare cases, some of these films never, ever made to the west and the Japanese DVD releases were the only way you could see these films legitimately in English. “Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space” was one of these films. Though it’s quite an odd and somewhat experimental film, I always assumed that someone like Central Park Media would have ended up releasing it. They had already released a similar title, “Cat Soup (Nekojiru-So)”, though that title was far more surreal and arty than “Tamala” . In the end no western video distributor took the opportunity to release the film in English, which I always thought was quite surprising.

It’s quite hard to give a rundown of the film’s contents, but I’m going to have a go anyway; In the year 2010 in an alternate universe inhabited by cats called the Feline Galaxy, we meet Tamala, a childish one-year-old cat who lives in Megalo City in Tokyo on Cat Earth. After awakening she reads a post card which has just turned up in the mail. She then immediately heads off to the Orion star system in her spaceship. Her space ship breaks down but the galactic version of the NRMA arrive to help her out. Unfortunately the break down service is attacked by the Dark God of Death, a ghost like creature in space. Tamala has no option but to fix her spacecraft herself. The Dark God of Death tries to abduct her, but she manages to scare him off by merely by making eye contact and saying “hi”. By this point in the film it’s obvious that Tamala isn’t a normal cat. Resuming her journey, Tamala is contacted by her “human mother” (who always appears with an anaconda wrapped around her). The human mother orders her to return home, but Tamala just insults her and terminates the transmission. The human mother retaliates by covertly sending a Catty & Co. cat mailman out to spy on her and to foil her plans. The mailman shoots a meteor from his ship to disable her ship, and Tamala ends up hurtling towards Planet Q.

After being welcomed to the planet by a bird, Tamala spies a car driven by a young male cat called Michelangelo. Tamala practically forces him into giving her a ride into the nearest city; Hate, a very violent and seedy town where half the population is dogs and the other half cats. The pair soon become friends, even though she continually calls Michelangelo “Moimoi” much to his disgust. Although jobless and seemingly spiraling into debt, Michelangelo takes Tamala out to see the sights if his town. They shop, go to night clubs, go bowling and make a trip to the Extinct Animal Museum. While trying to find the toilet in the museum, Tamala wanders into an area which has been in a state of neglect and disrepair for a number of years. Here she sees a tapestry of what seems to be a depiction of “cat hell” with a depiction of the constellation Orion in its centre. In another room she discovers a damaged statue of a robot cat called Tatla. Tamala has dreams of this giant robot cat, slowly descending a giant escalator in a city. Later that night Michelangelo end up in rave where Tamala seemingly becomes the centre of attention. The crowd and even Michelangelo begin to shout “Tamala” and “Minerva” as if in a trance. Later that evening at an observatory, Tamala explains to Michelangelo that she received a postcard telling her that her birth mother was still alive in the Orion star system. Previously the only clue she had to the origins of her birth was a piece of cardboard advertising trips to Orion, which was inside the box she was in when her human mother received her.

The next day Michelangelo and Tamala are in the city preparing to go out for a picnic. A police officer dog named Kentauros spots them and takes an immediate interest in Tamala. In previous scenes, we discover Kentauros is a very seedy dog who likes keeps a mouse named Penelope against her will in a cage. He often sexually tortures her in various ways and takes Polaroid photos of his handiwork. His other hobbies seem to include riding around town on his bike with his gay boyfriend and beating the living daylights out of people on the street. Kentauros decides to follow Tamala and Michelangelo out to the countryside. Once there, the couple head for a nearby waterfall and lake for their picnic. Whilst the couple are enjoying the peace and quiet, Kentauros runs from his hiding place and chases both of them down. Michelangelo manages to escape, but Tamala isn’t as lucky. He watches on in terror as Kentauros seems to kill and eat Tamala. Shaken, Michelangelo returns to the city, but things seem to get weirder. Catty & Co., the dominant company in the universe, seemingly have taken over the entire planet, plastering advertisements for their products everywhere. Most of the adverts feature images of Tamala. Young children are having strange dreams about the giant robot cat Tatla, and Michelangelo seems to be having hallucinations. One night a maggot infested zombie cat knocks on Michelangelo’s door asking for milk. Letting him inside, the cat (seemingly the same cat, a Professor, seen in a previous scene set 22 years in the future), tells him the secret of Tamala, her connections to the giant corporation Catty & Co., and a religion named Minerva.

See? Told you so. At times it’s pretty hard to make heads or tails (no pun intended) of this film. However one thing you can’t deny is that the movie’s style is quite unique. Apart from a handful of CG shots and a couple of computer processed live action shots, all of it is in black in white and is in the style of early 1960’s anime. While the design is obviously modern it does have a real 1960’s retro feel to it, very much in the style of “Astroboy”, “Wonder 3”, “Big X” and other Osamu Tezuka anime of that period. As you’d expect Tamala’s animation isn’t as primitive as those old shows, and is mostly 2D digitally animated and coloured, apparently using Adobe Flash. The Tatla sequences on the other hand are digitally animated in full 3D animation. While you would think the two styles wouldn’t mesh together well in this film, somehow it seems to work. But being more than a decade and a half old, the computer graphics now look somewhat aged though some of the shots still look pretty good, especially the city skyline and sky.

Before I delve deeper into the film, I want to talk about the creators behind this weird film; t.o.L, or trees of Life, are credited with just about all aspects of production including the story, screenplay, and character design (with designs by Kentaro Nemoto as well). t.o.L also created the music. Though most of the film’s promotional material credit t.o.L as being K and Kuno, the credits on the “Tamala 2010” album sound soundtrack reveal that K is Kei Saito and Kuno is Makiko Kuno (I’m assuming she’s not the model/B-movie actress that appeared in “XX: Beautiful Hunter”, but gosh, they do look a little bit similar…). trees of Life were actually a 1990’s rock group whose only claim to fame seems to be a appearance on X Japan front man hide’s “Lemoned” project (a compilation six track EP and video concert – see here for t.o.L’s performance in the video and their music video here) in 1996. As you’d expect from a project created by musicians, the music is where this project shines with t.o.L creating many varied styles of music for the film such as very up-tempo house music to dreamy guitar and vocal pieces, funk-rock and alternate garage band songs. With all of the varied instrumentation on the soundtrack, I suspect the duo called upon a lot of favours from fellow musicians to help them out. Their track on the “Lemoned” EP, “One Day for Maria”, was re-recorded for the end theme for this film.

As I may have mentioned a few times, this is quite a surreal and bizarre film. It seems to start out as some sort of sarcastic and surreal black comedy, like a feral, subversive “Hello Kitty” , but heads into David Lynch territory about one hour into the film. It got a little too weird for me at some stages, but it’s surreal humour was something that really appealed to me. For example at one point early on in the film, a giant Colonel Sanders-like robot with an axe stuck in the middle of his forehead is seen walking though Megalo City advertising Catty & Co. meat. The film gets even weirder and nonsensical from that point onwards with the story seemingly aimless at times. Besides the fact that Tamala is heading to Orion to find her birth mother, there really doesn’t seem to be a plot of any sort as such. That is until the zombie cat who pays a visit to Michelangelo blurts out most of it within a couple of minutes. But what is the film really about? Is it some sort of statement about mega-corporations and globalisation? Or is it a comment on organised religion? Or is just bizarre for bizarreness sake? Apparently t.o.L let slip in an interview that the story is based upon Thomas Pynchon’s 1966 novel “The Crying of Lot 49” which similarly features a cult who are operating as a postal service and corporate monopoly. Even with that knowledge, it’s still a difficult film to decipher what it’s real meaning is, if any. But despite the movie’s surreal nature, it is quite enjoyable. I find it works best if you don’t look for hidden meanings and not take it too seriously.

I suppose with the film seemingly lacking a plot for most of its length, it’s surrealism doesn’t quite fill the void where the story should be. So as you’d expect, the film does have a couple of shortcomings. The major problem is that the animation is a little cheap looking. There are a number of repeated animation shots and designs which the animators try to hide, but it is noticeable and a little distracting at times. The other problem is that there are probably a few too many characters jammed into the film, with some of them there only for one gag or scene. I did however like the two transvestite cats who sat the bar waiting for their prefect man. Their main purpose is to fill the viewer in on the city called Hate, but their conversation provides a lot of the film’s humour outside Tamala’s antics. The most probable reason for the over abundance of characters is that this film was supposedly the first in a trilogy. “Tamala in Orion” and “Tatla” were never made, and a planned TV series “Tamala in Space” (a clip of the pilot film appears on this DVD) also never materialised. However a DVD called “Tamala on Parade” was released in 2007 with two short films (“Tamala on Parade” and “Tamala’s Wild Party”) and as part of NHK’s “Save the Future” programme another short was broadcast in 2010 called “Wake Up!! Tamala”. Other than the various animation projects, there’s was an ongoing manga series and a bunch of merchandise ranging from Kubrick figures to a bicycle. The over merchandising also extended to the DVD release of the film which came in three versions; a regular and two limited versions, one set limited to 5,000 copies and the second limited to 2,000. Each came with various t-shirts, posters and figures, but a lot of the physical extras look rather cheap. The limited editions aren’t exactly what I’d call value for money.

Overall this is one very odd little film. I would say that due to the style of the film, and that it was promoted in magazines such as the Japanese editions of Vouge and Elle it’s obviously not aimed at anime fans. I suspect t.o.L’s main aim was to merchandise the crap out of Tamala to sell to a Japanese hipster-type audience. There’s some evidence to this with the film being littered with material that crowd might dig. For example there’s two references to vintage jeans in the film, French actress Béatrice Dalle (Betty in “Betty Blue” aka “37°2 le matin”) voices the CG robot cat Tatla in French for some unknown reason, and there are references to other films such as “The Shining”. While the film really is style over substance to large degree, it mostly succeeds at being a piece of enjoyable entertainment. While it’s probably not a shining example of animation, personally I think it’s great that people are still willing to take a chance to do something experimental with animation, especially those outside the animation industry. Check it out if you’re willing to try something completely different from most commercial anime that’s available out there.

Video Backlog: “Perfume Clips 2”

Publisher: Universal Music Home Video (Japan)
Format: Region Free Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue
Length: 63 mins
Production Date: 2012 - 2017
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

In the last few years I’ve discovered a number of Japanese artists by accident that I’ve become massive fans of. They range from the noise/punk/psychedelia of eX-girl to the electronica of Suiyobi no Campanella (Wednesday Campanella). But Idol and J-Pop stuff are genres I generally have no interest in. However when I first saw Perfume on SBS Popasia a couple of years ago, I was intrigued. With songs written and produced by Yasutaka Nakata of the electronic dance group Capsule, who is also the writer and producer of all of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s songs, Perfume's music was much more in line with dance music than pop. Their image was also far more mature and sophisticated than their contemporaries.

However the group had very humble beginnings. Formed in 2001 in a talent school, the group consisted of three young girls; Ayaka Nishiwaki (better known as A-chan), Yuka Kashino (Kashiyuka) and finally Ayano Omoto (Nocchi), who replaced a member who left very early on. As one kanji in each of the girl’s name meant scent, the trio decided to call themselves Perfume. Releasing a series of independent singles starting in 2002, eventually the group had made a big enough impression to be signed to major Japanese label Tokuma Japan Communications in 2005. However success did not come easily. After a number of poorly performing singles, their management company gave them one last chance with “Polyrhythm” in 2007. Due to the fact it the song was chosen to promote a NHK recycling campaign, it got enough exposure to become a top 10 hit. Since then the group has hit the top five with every subsequent single and all five of their studio albums have hit number one on the Japanese charts.

Their music videos have for the most part been quite inventive or at the very least colourful and fun. If I was being honest, I think a lot of the group’s appeal to myself is the visual element including the music videos and rather elaborate live performances. Even though single and album sales in Japan have shrunk dramatically over the last decade (for example Perfume once sold almost 100,000 CDs for most of their single releases after 2007. Recent singles are now barely make it to 60,000 CDs shipped), the music videos for them are still fairly high concept and budgeted with innovative dance moves by their long time choreographer Mikiko Mizuno (PKA Mikiko) of the dance troupe Elevenplay (also the choreographer for Babymetal). In late 2014, their former label (Tokuma) released the compilation “Perfume Clips” which complied all 22 of their major videos they made from 2005 to 2012 plus a new video complied out live performances. As the group have only released two and a half albums worth of videos on their current label, I honestly thought they would not release a second compilation until after their sixth studio album was released. I suspect that with video sales also slumping, they decided to get this compilation out now. I’ve decided to review this blu-ray set in the same way as I do with my series on anime music video compilations, that is track by track;

Spring of Life

This video was the very first Perfume music video I ever saw. The director was Yusuke Tanaka, a long-time collaborator with the group. He has also directed videos for a number of Japanese artists including Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and also US group OK Go. In this video the trio play robots inside some sort of laboratory. The first few cuts have the girls being worked on by an industrial robot arm with part of the girl's internal workings exposed. The trio's dresses are covered in LEDs which pulse to the music. All three have an electrical cord attached their backs which must have made it quite difficult to dance. In the instrumental interlude the trio perform in very jerky robot-like moves. Considering the group has been criticised in some circles as being machine like (mostly in terms of their partly auto tuned vocals), it seems a bit ballsy (or daft) to make a video like this. At any rate it’s quite a fun video, however the final scene which has Nocchi and Kashiyuka gleefully unplugging A-chan seems a bit weird. As per a lot of high profile major label artists in Japan, this song was used in a TV commercial, this time for a Kirin vodka based drink. This single was originally released in April 2012 on CD and also in a limited edition CD with a bonus DVD containing the music video.

Spending all my time

One of the more unusual songs and videos in Perfume’s catalogue, it features (almost entirely) English lyrics, something they’ve only done once before; on “Take Me, Take Me” which appeared on their 2008 debut album “Game”. This seems to be a deliberate as their management company, Amuse, were gearing up to market the group to a western audience. They already knew there was a sizable fanbase outside Japan and toured internationally for the first time that year, albeit in Asian counties, though they did do one show to English speaking fans in Singapore. This video was directed by Yusuke Tanaka and features Perfume in a disused room with several scenes repeated over and over again in time with the music such as them knocking on and attempting to open a locked door, two of them stepping towards each other and other various short cuts. Intercut with this are the trio performing various acts of extrasensory perception and psychokinesis such as levitating cups and apples, using Zener cards, bending spoons and knocking over or destroying small objects with their mind. The choreography in the clip is also quite minimal, using repeated gestures using mostly their hands, arms, legs and feet. The single was originally released in August 2012 on CD and also in a limited edition CD with a bonus DVD containing the music video.

Mirai no Museum (Museum of the Future)

This single was initially recorded for the anime film “Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum” which is part of the long running and beloved Doraemon manga and anime series. The music video is a part animated, part live action clip shot in black and white which mimics the manga origin story of Doraemon. The character designs are also reminiscent of those by the original creator of the manga, Fujiko Fujio. The story of the video has an old inventor from the future transporting Perfume back in time to help his younger self. There Perfume open a basement door and end up fighting various creatures in order to save the younger scientist’s self. The scientist as an old man and as young boy has the letters PTA in place of his eyes (PTA is the name of Perfume’s fanclub). The video mimics manga right down to speech bubbles (referencing the lyrics of the song) and on screen written sound effects. The video also references the previous two videos with the LED lit dresses from “Spring of Life” and Kashiyuka using the same psychokinesis moves as she did in “Spending all my time”. The special edition CD release (which as per all of their releases included a DVD of the music video) included a mini manga made up of screen shots of the video. Again, Yusuke Tanaka directed the video. The single was released in February 2013, one month prior to the release of the “Doraemon” film it features in.

Magic of Love

Easily one of my favourite Perfume videos. The setup is pretty simple; in a colourful set the trio dance, duet with copies of each other and the director, Yusuke Tanaka, crams as many visual tricks he can into three and three quarter minutes. It’s everything I love about the group; it’s full of absolute fun and colour. My favourite parts of the video include an early section where Kashiyuka turns around and takes off her hair and turns into Nocchi. There’s also a reversed shot of the girls dancing and singing, however the miming isn’t quite right and it looks a bit off. The bridge section of the song has the camera reversing through various doors and port holes revealing a new set of the trio as it travels. I suspect this effect was done in sequence and you can see Perfume less and less happy as with each pass. I think they must have got sick of it by the end! Another great effect is that in some shots the trio have clothes which match the background of the set and use props to make themselves appear or disappear. This song was also used in a commercial for Kanro’s Pure Gummy confectionary and as the theme for TV Tokyo's “Sukkiri” TV show. The single was released in May 2013.

1mm

This is a promotional video for the “Level 3” album which was released in October 2013. The video appeared on a bonus DVD which came with the special edition of the album as well as appearing on local music video TV shows across Japan. The video mimics the design of the album covers and inside artwork. In fact both the video and photography for the album were probably produced in the same sessions. A relatively simple video, it mostly features the trio in a studio with clear Perspex dividers lit with LEDs. As the girls sing the verses, the lyrics of the songs appear and fade on the dividers. As the song finishes the camera rises above the dividers to reveal they spell the letters for “Level 3”, as they do in the interior artwork for the album. The director of the video was Kazuaki Seki, also a long-time collaborator with the group who has previously directed Perfume videos such as “Spice”. He has also directed videos for Namie Amuro and Girl Next Door.

Sweet Refrain

Literally only a month after the release of their “Level 3” album, Perfume released a brand new single. However the song  originally appeared as the theme of TV Asahi’s “Toshi Densetsu no Onna 2” drama programme back in October, before the release of “Level 3”, yet did not appear on the album. Yes, this is how the Japanese music industry works; keep ‘em buying stuff. The set for the video is reminiscent of an art gallery, with the camera doing continual sweeps of the set with multiple A-chans, Kashiyukas and Nocchis dancing, bouncing balls and striking poses at various points. It feels similar to “Magic of Love” however the colour palate is far more muted with mostly shades of grey. Interestingly all three look quite different, almost unrecognisable with changes in make-up and hair as well as the designer clothes worn for the video. Perfume look extraordinarily mature here. Also of note here is the clock motif which ties in with the piano loop in the song.

Cling Cling

This single had a massive promotional push and the CD versions included four brand new songs, three of which had some sort of music video made for them. The video for the title track of the single is set in a market which seems to be an amalgamation of several Asian cultures. The girls in Chinese style dresses are seen cooking and manning stalls in the market as a young girl (an uncredited Mori Momoe who would later become a member of idol group Sakura Gakuin) enters and finds a kaleidoscope. Intercut with these scenes during the chorus is the trio dancing on a stage in the middle of the market with what seems to be monks. Later in the video, one of the monks steals the little girl’s kaleidoscope, however using a hook on a rope and pulley, Perfume retrieve it for her. Compared with the previous videos for their new record label, this one has quite a large budget. The costumes for this video were displayed at various promotional events in Japan including a “Cling Cling World” gallery. The single was released in May 2014.

DISPLAY

This short music video was made essentially as a promotion tool/product demonstration for a new line of Panasonic 4K ultra high definition TVs being released in Japan. The clip merges three camera passes of a set with the set colour and Perfume’s dresses changing each time. All three passes are then combined and partially merged with the others. Due to the high resolution of the source material, the video looks overly sharp, unnatural and a little bit off-putting in my opinion, even on my 1080p blu-ary player and 10 year old digital TV. I much prefer the filmic look of their other videos. Unfortunately the only version of this video in existence is the one presented here which only runs for about a minute and half. Like many of the B-sides of Perfume’s recent singles, amazingly this track did not find a place on their last album. This song originally appeared on the “Cling Cling” CD single.

Hold Your Hand
The third video from the “Cling Cling” single. This is probably Perfume’s most simple and most likely their cheapest music video. After the single was released, the group put out a call for fans to take photographs of their hands with kanji or hiragana of the song’s lyrics. These photos were complied with additional photographs of A-chan, Kashiyuka and Nocchi doing the same thing to make a “lyric video”. It’s a really cute idea and it’s quite effective, even though I’m not exactly a huge fan of the song. Some of the painting and drawings on the hands are really well done, but due to the number of photos used, they flick by quite quickly. Flicking through the images one by one is quite interesting and brings up a number of surprises.This song also originally appeared on the “Cling Cling” CD single. The video clip did not appear on the bonus DVD of the limited edition CD/DVD sets of “Cling Cling”. Instead it was heavily promoted on Perfume's Youtube channel and later appeared on the bonus DVD and Blu-ray in the limited edition versions of “Cosmic Explorer” album.

Relax In The City

This release was a double A single with “Pick Me Up”. A slower ballad song, the video clip has Perfume in a Perspex cube room which appears near the beachfront somewhere remote in Okinawa. The trio in white dresses mostly just walk around outside the room during the verses with camera suddenly zooming in and zooming out to reveal a new scene transition (and usually whoever is singing the next part of the song). It’s relatively subtle and quite well done. From what I understand the video what shot in February and due to the sheer material used in the dresses, Perfume were quite cold and unconformable during filming. The song was also used in a TV commercial featuring Perfume for Sapporo Green Aroma beer. This single was released in the usual standard CD and and limited edition CD single with bonus DVD versions in April 2015.

Pick Me Up

The other A side of the split single. This was a double collaboration. First with Japanese department store Isetan. With the initial scenes set outside the Shinjuku store close to midnight, the trio find themselves being drawn inside by some unknown force. There they explore inside and eventually find doppelgangers of themselves. They separately try to escape and are menaced by mannequins  Intercut with this are sequences if the trio dancing and acting like mannequins in the store’s windows. Coupled with the incredibly unsubtle Isetan plugs is a second collaboration with US rock group OK Go. They appear at the very start of the video as store mannequins. The group were returning a favour as Perfume had also made a cameo in their “I Won't Let You Down” video. Later the two groups would collaborate on a song called “I Don’t Understand You” for the “Sushi Police” anime soundtrack.

STAR TRAIN

This single was released to promote the documentary film “We Are Perfume”, which followed the group on their third world tour in October and November 2014 taking in Taipei, Singapore, Los Angeles, London and New York (the first time Perfume had toured the US, a real achievement from them) as well as a performance at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. The video is a very simple affair with the group miming to the song mostly while watching the film on an old 16mm film projector. Most recently the song has been used as an emotional closer for their concerts. The director of the video was long time collaborator Kazuaki Seki who has directed videos for Base Ball Bear, Boom Boom Satellites, Glay and OK Go. This single was released in conjunction with the “We Are Perfume” documentary in October 2015.

FLASH
This video was created to promote their fifth studio album, “Cosmic Explorer” which was released in April 2016 in a multitude of physical formats. Originally released on the soundtrack for the live action film series of the “Chihayafuru” manga, this video is also a simplistic affair with the trio preforming martial arts-type dance moves on an empty studio stage. Some computer graphics have been added in post-production to make the action a bit more impressive and in the latter part of the video the girls use long florescent tubes in a kind of mock laser sabre battle/dance. It has been noted by fans that the dance moves in the video were similar to those used by Babymetal for their video “Karate” which was released around the same time. Both groups use the same choreographer, Mikiko, and are managed by the same production agency. The video was directed by Yusuke Tanaka.

TOKYO GIRL

The first new single in the next cycle of multiple singles before finally, a new album. The video for this song opens on Tokyo at night. A large tower has appeared in the city, with Perfume separately riding it’s glass elevators to the top. Meanwhile several people carrying small luminescent pyramid structures run around various landmarks of the city leaving the pyramids in various places. Eventually beams of light emit from the pyramids and converge at the apex of the tower Perfume are on as they dance on an illuminated stage inside. Fans tired to figure out what the tower would be in Tokyo if it were real and discovered it was right in the block where Perfume's production company, Amuse, is in; Shibuya. This single was released in in February 2017. Kazuaki Seki directed the video.

Everyday

The split singe for this release (released with “If you wanna”) was mostly a massive promotion for a new range of Panasonic washing machines. Some of the footage shot for the video ended up only in the TV commercial for the washing machines and some was specially shot for it on the same set. In the video Perfume dance on a stage set around what look like clouds (or soap suds) with a ring of clouds (or soap suds) flying in formation around them. Both sets of clouds/soapsuds light up in sequence on occasion. Intercut with this are single shots of the trio, with the clock motif from “Sweet Refrain” repeated, except with the clock occasionally “exploded” to show it’s individual parts. Perfume are also shown levitating and somewhat disturbingly shown with the lower half of the bodies dissolving into soap suds, with some of the suds falling from their body to the ground. The single was released in August 2017.

If you wanna
The title track of the split single with “Everyday”. Unlike “Everyday” the video did not appear on the special edition CD and DVD set of the single. Instead it exclusively appeared in this video clip compilation. A throwback to their earlier material, this track features heavily processed stuttered vocals. The video has the trio hibernating in an expansive white room. From there each member is seen in from of large floating objects such as large ships, passenger planes and cars. The verses feature close ups of each member of perfume while the chorus cut to a different set filled with numerous flashing light boards. Clocking in at just over two minutes, it’s Perfume’s shortest single to date. If I was cynical this was in part to create a shorter and cheaper music video. The song was also used in a TV commercial for Kuchimoto Ora2 beauty products.

As per the original limited edition “Perfume Clips” set released by Tokuma in 2014, the packaging for this limited edition version is pretty much identical. The blu-rays come in a digipak with a lenticular image on the front featuring images from videos. This opens up to reveal a simple insert in a pocket with the credits for the videos and the packaging. Over the digipak fits a thin cardboard sleeve (also identical to the original limited edition version of “Perfume Clips”) which probably is meant to mimic the border around a TV set. There's also a 24 page booklet with comments from staff, selected storyboards, image boards, plus shots of Perfume catering for staff, in a video editing studio and with camera equipment. The second disc of extras includes commentary with Perfume themselves on all of the videos. This is not done in the usual way with just an audio track. Instead the trio are in a theatrette with the camera on them with video matted into background. They mostly talk about their experiences in making videos, however for “Mirai no Museum” amusingly they just end up dramatically reading the sound effects off the screen. Also included on the disc is an alternate short version of “Everyday” with the trio shot behind a green screen with added CG bubbles which is probably raw footage made for use in the Panasonic washing machine campaign, plus TV commercials for every single and album release for their current record label to date.

Overall it's a fantastic package that fans of the group will love. I love most of the videos here, however I think some of their earlier ones, especially those created for the singles from the “JPN” album are the best of the career. Still it amazes me that their production company and record label still pours a lot of money in the group and these videos despite the rapidly dwindling singles, album and home video sales. The group has lost their a lot of their edgier dance sound and are heading for a more dance pop sound, seemingly becoming influenced by whatever is trending in western markets, yet I still find them fascinating. Like the first set, I think I'll end up playing this over and over again for years to come. 8.5 out of 10.

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