This article is about a seminar that happened ten years back. It originally was on a different website. As a companion to the Ten Years Later article about the Phoenix / Hi No Tori TV series, I’ve had it re-published for people to read here, with a couple of updates. It’s one meeting I’ve never forgotten in my time as an anime collector. I hope you enjoy it.

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About ten years ago, I came home and found the following release among my email:

The Consulate General of Japan in Atlanta is pleased to invite you to a lecture by renowned Japanese Anime Director Ryosuke Takahashi and Producer Eiji Sashida which will take place at Emory University Harland Cinema on Monday, March 15 2004 at 6:00 pm. This event is part of a series of events planned for this year to commemorate the “150th anniversary of the U.S.-Japan relationship.” Director Takahashi, known for such films as Cyborg 009 and Chinmoku no kantai (The Silent Service), and Producer Sashida, who has found innovative ways to introduce animation abroad, will explain the history and current state of Japanese animation. They will also talk about Japanese animation culture from their respective points-of-view. Portions of works directed by Takahashi will be introduced and screened. This is a rare opportunity to get an insider’s view of Japanese animation.

Naturally, being a mecha anime fan, I was seriously excited for the chance to meet Mr. Takahashi, given that I’d really enjoyed his work on classic series such as Armor Trooper Votoms, Blue Comet SPT Layzner and Gasaraki. I wasn’t as familiar with Sashida’s role in the anime industry, though he was instrumental in getting works like The Big O, Dirty Pair, City Hunter and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam onto Japanese airwaves, so I was equally interested to hear about the business aspect of the industry.

After a brief introduction by Ms. Jessica Cork of The Consulate of Japan, Takahashi (who insisted on the anime and animation works be referred to as ‘cartoons’ via an interpreter) began with brief history lesson on the anime industry, primarily focusing on the works of his idol Osamu Tezuka. He showed the progression of Japanese comic styles from one frame works of the 1860s to multi-panel sequential works, similar to pieces of film laid out on paper. After the films of Walt Disney were imported there, Japanese animated works became more prevalent in the 1940s and 50s, but these were film pieces, not television shows. There was very little animation except for U.S imports of Tom & Jerry and similar fare. When Osamu Tezuka came into the comic field, he introduced an incredible amount of detail in his artwork, a style which hadn’t been seen previously in Japan. Takahashi attributes this element of Tezuka’s style to his education as a medical doctor before doing comics. Tezuka also wanted to introduce animation to television with his company Mushi Productions, going on to animate his manga Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) and thus revolutionizing the anime industry on two fronts.

On one hand, Tezuka changed the way animated works were produced. He wanted to use a different process from that of Toei Animation, which had produced a film every 2 years with 20,000 drawings for every 30 minutes of animation. Tezuka wanted to use 1/10th that amount with two techniques. One was layering cels to produce different bits of implied motion. The other was the ‘bank system’, in which cells would be recycled and backgrounds moved to other parts of characters and sequences to create whole new scenes. These newer production systems were part of what Tezuka called the ‘TV anime’ style. Tetsuwan Atom also was the first animated program on Japanese TV with a singular storyline instead of an episodic structure. Tezuka wanted to make a series that kids could enjoy, but which touched on themes of the environment, ethnicity, and other topical world events. According to Takahashi, many talented animators wanted to work in the film industry, but decided to learn from Tezuka’s style and proceeded into the television industry. As a result, 3 more animated series premiered in 1964 bringing a total of 4 new ongoing animated series running in Japan that year as animators learned to explore new storylines without any boundaries.

This ‘TV anime’ system remained prevalent until 1974, when the series Space Battleship Yamato premiered in Japan. It was significant in that it was the first anime work that had not been adapted from a pre-existing manga like all other anime works had been. The series was initially not a success as audiences gave Yamato rather low ratings, causing the show to be cancelled before its storyline fully completed. However supporters came to help develop the series and it was adapted into a well-received film compilation. This led to the creation of several sequel films and series and earned Yamato a notable place in anime history. Takahashi also noted how the original 1979 TV series Mobile Suit Gundam had a similar fate before launching into a 25 year franchise, which in turn led to the publication of several anime-only magazines, where none existed before the late 70s-early 80s period. He also briefly mentioned other high points of anime viewing, including Macross, Evangelion, and Akira.

Takahashi ended his segment of the program with a clip from his current project, which I’ll discuss a little later.

Sunrise Inc. Executive Eiji Sashida then took over the program detailing the economics and probable future of the anime industry. He stated that currently 40 companies produce 100 new anime episodes each week. There are usually divisions of labor: 1) storyboards and plotting, 2) backgrounds and coloring 3) scoring, sound design and other elements. Sashida said the 40 companies do not necessarily do all the work themselves, but mostly organize and farm out work to other sub companies. He noted 30% of it is farmed out to China, Korea, and The Philippines to cut costs, and contrasted that with the fact that 10 years ago, Warner Brothers and Disney would send about the same amount of animation work to Japan for the same reason.

Sashida also commented on the styles of anime production, for which only 2 of the 40 companies focus on cell-based projects. The rest are primarily computer based focusing more and more on 3D animation. To illustrate his point, the producer presented a clip from Gundam Evolve, a series of CGI shorts based on various Gundam series. This particular one had the G Gundam practicing tai chi before getting into a Dragonball Z-styled fight with another Gundam. He then showed a clip from Machine Robo Rescue, a recent series in which 3D animated settings are used as backgrounds while 2D characters (hand drawn figures which were colorized using computer paint programs) interacted with them. Sashida presented these techniques as the future of the anime industry, in which 3D may completely supplant 2D animated techniques and become the mainstream animation medium. He believes computers and new technologies will add a level of variety and expression to anime that traditional animation can’t match. Along with the general look he cited the easier process of layering multiple pictures and the efficiency of mass-producing new animated projects as reasons for the 3D animation advances.

Steamboy

Sashida then unveiled an incredible trailer for the newest film by Katsuhiro Otomo, Steamboy, which Otomo is said to have worked on for over a decade. Set in what looks like Victorian England, Steamboy represents an intricate merging of 2D and 3D animation techniques telling what seems to be the story of a boy who is sent on a cross country quest and encounters adventure at every turn, somewhat reminiscent of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Time Machine in theme. (I’m sorry I couldn’t catch more of the story details here, but the visuals were just unbelievable.)

After the blown-away audience settled down, the veteran producer concluded his presentation with some discussion of the economics of the anime industry, notably mentioning the 40 anime companies account for $1 billion of Japan’s economy in terms of revenue for secondary work, commercialization and copyright claims. He particularly noted the international commerce between the United States and Japan which the U.S. exports $900 million in entertainment to Japan while Japan exports $100 million to the U.S; in closing, Sashida half-jokingly asked audience members “to please go out and buy more Japanese animation.”

A subsequent Q&A session from the audience followed the lecture covering various other aspects of anime not yet discussed. Sashida addressed the fact more series are 13-26 episodes instead of like in previous years in which 40-50 episode series were more common. He noted current short series are usually aimed at viewers in the 18-20 years or older market in hopes of getting them to buy the videos when they’re released, as opposed to young children’s series such as Pokemon or Doraemon, which run constantly. He also said buyers interests determine which anime get exported to foreign markets. When the always-interesting question about fansubbers (people who subtitle untranslated anime without official permission) distributing unlicensed anime was asked, Sashida admitted, “It’s a difficult question. Japanese copyright law says anyone can subtitle a show for private use in his own home. However if distribution will help increase sales, I will turn a blind eye to it. Heh.”

Takahashi meanwhile fielded questions about his time working with Osamu Tezuka, stating that during his 6-year tenure at Mushi Productions he gained a tremendous amount of respect for “The father of manga” and would spend whole weekends working and sleeping at the studios. Though not necessarily his favorite, the work he respects the most out of all anime is Jungle Taitei (Kimba The White Lion) for the wonder it brought to both adults and children. This respect is part of what led him to his current project: Hi No Tori (Phoenix).

Based on an unfinished series of stories by Tezuka, the TV series will depict tales of various people attempting to worship and capture a mystical firebird for various reasons, such as eternal life or personal glory. The clip he showed from the as yet unaired pilot was based on the ‘Dawn’ storyline (released in the U.S. as a graphic novel by Viz) in which a little boy encounters an army wiping out his village and is subsequently captured. The animation looks similar to a late 80s-mid 90s OAV piece instead of modern TV show; it reminded me of Black Jack without the Dezaki pause-on-paintings effect. Takahashi has said the Phoenix TV series will tell the stories Tezuka wrote and will likewise remain as unfinished as the manga out of respect for Tezuka.

Takahashi also commented on the wave of anime remakes being produced. “You have touched upon one of my biggest fears. Japanimation is losing its originality,” he said. The animator laid this out in stages. “The first generation created anime, the second advanced what the first built, and the third respects what the first did and so wants to re-animate what the first generation did and the viewpoints start to merge instead of move forward.” In light of this statement, I’m pretty sure we won’t be seeing him revisit any of his older anime projects anytime soon.

After the program was over, I have to say I was very happy to have attended. I do wish I could’ve heard the duo speak a bit more on what it was like to work on some of their own series, but their presentation on the history and advances of anime was very informative. Also, I got Takahashi to autograph one of my SPT Layzner tapes, my Votoms DVD, and was able to torture my friend who loves Machine Robo and absolutely hates the new series. (My singing the Go-Bots theme didn’t help matters much either, but I digress…) In any case, I would like to thank The Consulate General of Japan in Atlanta for the opportunity to meet these gentlemen and look forward to future events they hold.

“When Cap-tain America throws his mighty shielllld….”

Yeah, that 60s cartoon is what comes to mind still when I think of the Star Spangled Avenger as he’s been known. Captain America’s iconic stature (both in and out of the comic) is something that’s never gone away. The First Avenger film covered this though while flashing through his life.

The newest one to unofficially start the summer blockbuster season (in spring) is entitled Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and it brings everything down to the man himself Steve Rogers (Chris Evens) who simply likes to go running in the morning throughout Washington DC. He keeps running circles around another veteran who’s not quite as fast but determined in his own way. When they both finish their run, Steve meets Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), a former soldier who looks after veterans with problems. They come to relate to each other pretty well just as Natasha Romanov (Scarlet Johanssson) drives up as recruits Cap for a rescue mission at sea, where he has to help rescue a ship of hostages from pirates led by the French mercenary Batroc (Georges St. Pierre).

Afterward, Steve goes to discuss the ramifications of the mission with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who has been working on ways to give SHIELD greater security ever since the New York incident (AKA The Avengers movie). Fury begins to have concerns with his latest project though and talks to his boss, Secretary Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford). Steve meanwhile tries to assimilate to his newer surroundings after having been frozen for about 70 years, learning about such things as Star Wars, Marvin Gaye and the internet. Along the way, he learns about the fates of his World War 2 friends and tries to make some new ones, such as a cute neighbor named Kate (Emily VanCamp). Eventually though, it all goes to hell and the action kicks in, with much of the craziness surrounding a mysterious operative called The Winter Soldier…

Wow… where to begin on why this movie is so good….?

Well, we’ll start with the story here. The First Avenger was a good movie but it was done with a different purpose than this one. It was done to establish who Steve Rogers is as a person and why Captain America had achieved the legendary status he had in his lifetime leading up to the creation of The Avengers. The biggest problem is that the film flash forwarded thorough Steve’s life and all his exploits are given a tiny window to be seen, and antagonists such as the Red Skull aren’t given enough focus.

The story of The Winter Soldier has no such restraints and actually works on multiple levels. We’ve seen Captain America built up with back story in two films now and he gets to cut loose in the modern world and can help change things as needed. Heto has a specific goal now which will likely carry on to future films. He gets a lot done here but much like the comics there threat never ends and there’s still so much to do.

Speaking of the comics, the screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely uses much of what made the Captain America comics by Ed Brubaker and the SHIELD comics by Jim Steranko such effective action stories so engaging. There’s a tremendous mix of Marvel lore and spy thriller intrigues which make this screenplay work. At one poin halfway through the film when Cap and Black Widow begin to see what’s really going on, my inner comic fanboy came out big time, indicating these scriptwriters knew very much what they were doing. I’ll have to re-watch again to see just how many Marvel-minded easter eggs were laid throughout the film. Also, much like Bruce Timm’s animated works from Batman to Justice League, there’s a lot to be gained from a shared / integrated universe. If you’ve been watching all of the Marvel universe movies as well as Agents of SHIELD, you’re rewarded with the experience here as many things can come back to haunt you at any time.

Now I have to talk about the action sequences, which are just plain incredible. Cap is very active and exactly the way I’d imagined him from the comics. It’s one thing to see him in animation but seeing the movements and use of the ricocheting shield in live action is something else entirely. The action gets a little long some times but still very entertaining and 3D effects did help in a few scenes. The Winter Soldier’s used very effectively as Cap battles him and many other adversaries. The camera gets right up into everyone’s movements and hits you hard in every sequence.

Actually, everyone gets to shine as the film moves on. Nick Fury is still a badass. The Falcon gets to emerge and become Cap’s best friend. Redford seems to channel his Nathan Muir character from Spy Game here, giving Pierce increasingly confident arrogance as the film goes on.

Black Widow though… to be honest, I hadn’t really been into her character much the previous times she showed up. In Iron Man 2, all I could think of is Scarlett Johansson in a nice outfit because she’s not used much except as eye candy for much of the film. I got to like her a little better in The Avengers (especially her interrogation of Loki) but I never really thought of her as a threat that much. Martial arts, marksmanship and infiltration seemed to feel a little out of place against alien invasion (though she did acquit herself well in the big battle). Here though, in a story of intrigue, secrets and character development, she’s wonderful. Her abilities and character really strengthen the overall product. Also, she’s a good sibling of sorts for Steve to bond with in the quieter scenes. This is the best use of The Black Widow out of all the Marvel movies, and I’d honestly love to see her with a solo film now.

In the end though, this is Chris Evans’s movie and he brings the goods big time. He gets to show full emotional range to make Steve a believable character. Actually, he’s done so in the previous two Cap features (first film and Avengers) but he’s much more physical and gets put through a lot more emotionally. Seeing him look up everyone from the past was a bit heartbreaking to watch as much as it is to see him face the loss of what he holds dear in the present. I’ve seen many people say for years that Captain America is boring because of his moral center but the one thing I’ve always maintained is that a character is only as entertaining as the conflicts he has to face, and for Cap, the conflicts are tremendous here. Evans performance makes you give a damn what happens to Steve Rogers, and I hope to see him bring life to this role (with more well-written scripts and good direction) for years to come.

In the end, this is probably my second or third favorite Marvel movie to date. The Avengers remains tops for me, and I rank this one alongside the first Iron Man. With the tremendous momentum this, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers Age of Ultron will likely build up, I can’t understand why WB would want to open Superman / Batman against the next Captain America movie. Marvel’s line of directors and scriptwriters are constantly keeping a good standard for both comic fans and general filmgoers alike, and currently show no signs of slowing down. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Grade: A

Wolf Children Ami And Yuki

So I was sitting here looking over my anime collection and though about the fact that mothers aren’t really focused on in many anime that I wind up collecting or seeing. But there are some great ones out there that should be viewed on a day like today. I’m coming at this from different angles though so hopefully you’ll bear with me on this. It’s a rather spur of the moment bit that just hit me.

Runner up; Gall Force: Eternal Story – This one hadn’t occurred to me until I listed my five other titles so it’s in a runner up spot. Also, the reasons for placing it on a list like this wouldn’t become clear until the last 1/3 of the film. The plot focuses on a race of humanoid females called the Solnoids who are in a war with the gelatinous exo-skeleton wearing force called the Paranoids. It’s a galactic sci-fi story in which one small ship full of women race to their next battleground but run into some terrible incidents along the way. It’s the 80s OAV format at its finest and there really is a reason for it being on this list. It’s entertaining enough if you can find a copy.

5. Neon Genesis Evangelion – Yeah I know, what the hell? Giant robots and judeo Christian references aren’t necessarily good focus points for Mother’s day… until you get to the later stages nof the series in which they discuss what happened to Shinji Ikari’s mother Yui, and how her death affected both Gendo and Shinji, not to mention the insane plans that Gendo developed over time as well as Rei Ayanami’s role in everything. Metaphysics ard more make this a possible worthy title to watch and discuss.

4. Hare + Guu (AKA Everything Was Nice in The Jungle, Then Came Guu) – This anime comedy focuses mostly on a little boy named Hare and a very strange girl named Guu who moves in with him and his mom, Weda. Strangely, Hare is reasonably well adjusted despite the fact that both ladies in his life like to torment him from time to time. As the show goes on though, we come to learn Weda left her family in the city because she was single and pregnant and the last couple episodes of the first season are about getting Weda reunited into the family fold. This is a very touching story that helps elevate the show above most anime comedies.

3. Galaxy Express 999 (The Movie) – Though technically, the lead female character Maetel isn’t a parent here, she becomes a surrogate one of sorts in the course of the story. The initial focus is on a little boy named Tetsuro who saw his mother murdered by a machine man, one of many people who’ve abandoned their bodies for the prospect of living forever. As a result, Tesuro wants to rid a galactic train to get his own mechanized body in order to be strong enough to gain vengeance on his mother’s Killer. Enter the mysterious woman Maetel who provides him with a pass aboard the said train and acts as a guide and protector at times, for Tetsuro, though she comes to have her own hidden agenda for doing this. In any case, the mother /son dynamic of sorts is there to be viewed and there is the fact that manga writer Leiji Matsumoto named his lead female Maetel after the Latin word for “mother.”

2. Tenchi The Movie: Tenchi Muyo In Love – I honestly wasn’t a fan of Tenchi Muyo or the harem anime genre at the time I saw this movie. I’m still not after all these years, but this movie totally grabbed my attention when I saw it and remains one of the better works for its time. The series’ focus character Tenchi gets very little to do in this move besides staying hidden initially. Instead, the focus is on his mother Achika who died soon after giving birth. An ancient alien force goes back in time to kill this woman so Washu leads Tenchi and his friends back there help her fight this menace, and one heck of a battle ensues.

1. Wolf Children – The single best animated movie of 2013. (Yes, I liked it better than Frozen or The Wind Rises.) This was a true testament to single motherhood as the lead character must endure the challenges of raising 2 children without any assistance, since they were sired by a werewolf. When joint-raising no longer is an option, this woman goes through a hell of a lot to make sure her kids are brought up safely, even as her own life never really prepared her for everything that comes her way. I can’t help but to think horror author Laurall K Hamilton would love this movie, given the obstacles that arise and the intelligent way the screenwriters handled them. If you’ve not seen this film I highly recommend doing so. During two big screenings at Otakon and Anime Weekend Atlanta, I saw many folks moved to tears by this story.

Robocop Vs Terminator

Creative Staff:
Story: Frank Miller
Art: Walter Simonson and Steve Oliff

What They Say
WHEN THE HUMAN RESISTANCE learns that the technology that rebuilt officer Alex Murphy led to Skynet becoming sentient, its deadliest soldier is sent back in time to stop it. Her mission: eliminate RoboCop before his consciousness can give birth to the murderous computer network. But in a bid for self-preservation, Skynet sends its own agents to the past, a squadron of Terminators tasked with protecting RoboCop at any cost. Determined to prevent the apocalypse he has precipitated while evading the threat of the rebel soldier after his life, Murphy must engage in a time-twisting battle that will take him both inside Skynet and into a distant future.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’m a selective fan of crossover comics where two properties are brought together for a given work because it’s not very often that the given results are memorable ones. Sure it’s nice to see a big name character team up or trade blows with another from an outside company, but sometimes they feel like what-ifs instead of something that could feel plausible in any way shape or form. In the 80s, there were a few such projects between the big two comic companies, usually done on tabloid-sized format because these were epic events featuring Superman, Spider Man, The Hulk, and Batman, leading to some good one shots from Marvel and DC Comics.

In the 90s, the crossover phenomenon truly went full bore as the big two would frequently have event comics of some sort (though in regular-sized issues from then on) and began working with the smaller companies such as Image, Fleetway Comics, and Dark Horse, the latter of which gathered up many movie franchises for their own comic adventures. Long before they ever battled on the big screen, you could find some pretty good battles of Alien Vs. Predator on the newsstands. Also, the award winning Batman Vs Predator hit the shelves and later Superman vs Aliens and The Thing (From Another World) followed suit.

Dark Horse had some success with different series based on Robocop and The Terminator so eventually, it was time to put the two together for some metal-on-metal mayhem and they called in top talents to do it. Various kinds of promotions were used including a video game tie-in (Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis) and media coverage. The top talents though included “Sin City” writer Frank Miller and artist Walt Simonson who left a lasting impression with “The Mighty Thor.”

The Robocop Vs. Terminator comic initially takes place in the future, deep into the mankind vs machine war, as the deadly A.I. Skynet has wiped out most of humanity (including apparently John Connor). A single soldier named Flo fights her way into one of the Terminators’ bases and learns the reason Skynet became self-aware was due to copying the human/cybernetic interface that enabled Alex Murphy to be Robocop. So Alice goes back in time to kill Robocop… and the Terminators don’t take this development very well so they follow her through the time stream to Old Detroit.

Miller’s writing style is perfect here, as he has a fun balance of action, storytelling and satire in a violent world much like the Robocop films and the oft-mentioned Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. We get to see a basketball game full of gun toting spectators as well as amusing uses of the ED-209 police droids. There’s also witty narration keeping the moments in humorous perspective. And through it all, Robo retains his stoic dedication to duty, making certain he can keep as many people alive as he can. Miller also uses an interesting angle for time travel not utilized in the Terminator movies but it ultimately works for this story.

Simonson’s art is explosive and refined with a cartoony style. Characters are sizable but have fully rendered details, with what look like stylized sketch lines both in and around the figures. He brought these aspects to a well executed crossover from the 80s, between The X–Men and The Teen Titans and it serves him well here, with the Terminators and Robocop looking rather shiny during and after their battles. There’s also a genuine creepiness to the Terminator designs he comes up with as their endoskeletons (as well as the other more elaborate and unique Terminators) show sinister smiles when revealed.

This collected edition puts together all 4 issues of the initial mini-series but has an entirely new coloring added to it. Most of them have bolder hues than previous editions, while others though have entirely different colors used, primarily in big background pages. It’s a bit of a different experience than the one initially depicted by colorist Steve Oliff but still this makes the overall project no less entertaining. The added design sketches and artwork are a definite plus to have as extras.

In Summary:
It’s been a while since this series has seen any form of reprinting and this new version is definitely a welcome one. If you’re re-interested in Robocop due to the recent remake movie or just miss the original version, give this book a try. You’ll likely wish for it to be made into a movie itself, much like I did.

Grade: A

Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: July 15, 2014
MSRP: $24.99

As we head into Anime Expo 2014, we thought it’d be nice to look back on the events of last year in anticipation of upcoming happenings. Sentai Filmworks brought filmmaker Makoto Shnkai to debut his film Garden of Words. Director Masaaki Yuasa brought a 12 minute film funded entirely by kickstarter. Attack on Titan producer George Wada came and saw his show was more popular than he ever knew in America with the panel hall full of Titan cosplayers, which probably led to Funimation eventually getting the show onto Cartoon Network’s Toonami, even though as Wada noted during a pres conference, the show was meant to teach 10 year old kids the dangers of going over the fence into the outside world.

Attack on Titan was also some thing Production I.G. director Mitsuhisa Ishikawa touched upon at his press conference, as it’s one of a few big shows they’d been working on. He spoke even more on another project entitled Space Battleship Yamato 2199, which was an unusual business model, initially releasing multi episode blocks theatrically before they were broadcast on TV “We’ve remade Space Battleship Yamato as a TV series and new movies are coming. The reaction in Japan was very positive.” He continued, “Yamato was originally considered dead project. (Our) enthusiasm got project running. Hopefully we proved detractors wrong.”

When asked if he foresaw future Yamato 2199 projects remaking parts of the story, he noted “When making some contract, there are hurdles to be cleared. I think it will be made. Not a question of fans support but when hurdles will be cleared.” Apparently they were at some point as a new trailer went up recently promoting 2 new 2199 movies which will review the TV show and introduce The Comet Empire as the next invasion force. (He asked me about American reaction to Yamato 2199 whether it’s individual or across the board. So I told him many people who watch love the animation and appreciate the fact that the story expands on so much. I’d like to think this helped to get Star Blazers 2199 distributed here, but who knows?)

The focus shifted to his new OAV series Ghost In The Shell: Arise “I was inspired by shows like CSI and 24 and wanted to do 1 hour blocks to tell stories and maybe do better a bit than Hollywood.” He met with GITS creator Masamune Shirow and was very impressed afterward. “Shirow had mountains of books on the sci-fi genre. He took the concepts most likely to occur in next 50 years and put them into GITS.”

Arise will be comprised of four 50 minutes episodes total, two of which were screened nationally by Funimation recently. “When you watch them all, you’ll know why this many. I wanted to make something completely new.” He noted some of the pitfalls and peaks of this new show’s direction. “There are new seiyuu, new designers, new music, etc. Internet folks were really sad and disappointed to see changes initially, and that was the starting point we had.” Continuing on the changes and fan reaction, “Your end product depends on director. We’re on our third director, who mostly animates The director can or can’t have something changed. We had a feeling some folks might not like changes but had confidence people would ultimately accept what we did.

Focusing on the origins of Maj. Kusinagi the setting is the year 2027, before she gets to be part of Section 9. “Motoko isn’t superwoman or immortal. In this series she’s suffering. Just her brain is human, her body is metal. She was raised as weapon of war, but wants to live as a human. I feel fans will support someone who is suffering more than someone w/ no vulnerabilities.”

The Blue Exorcist movie which came to home release a couple months back was screened here as well, with a panel hosted by Animation Director and Character Designer Keigo Saski, as well as overall producer Takamitsu Inoue. They spoke initially about the focus of the film. “The theatrical film is an extension of the TV story about the brothers’ trials and tribulations. It will be very obvious when you see film.” Also, “the movie isn’t battles in combat lands but bonds between various characters.”

Saski noted about his work, “The character designs have been brushed up to be new and fresh. For me the tough part was making sure character designs got closer to the original story and keeping them faithful.” Continuing about his contributions here, “I learned a lot doing Nightraid. I’m still developing style, though. Never constant or satisfied. Not something that will ever be fixed.” As to his own inspirations, “Space Adventure Cobra is my biggest influence. Any work where the guy is strong.”

The duo fielded a question similar to one asked at a convention in France: “Why would Japanese people tell a story about the devil?”, and they noted, “We drew from inspirations and cultures around the world. Not to negate what religion is about. I’m sorry if some sensitive people may have trouble accessing it. The movie’s not a critique of religion; more an inspiration. We hope everyone can enjoy our work as a whole and not just religious aspect.” Continuing they noted more about the film’s setting “Very Japanese / Asian. We took effort to be accurate setting. Hope you enjoy. Story is meant to be accessible to people who’ve never seen BE before, to entice new people to see the TV show while entertaining people who’ve seen it before.”

And now, let’s get ourselves ready for…

Short Peace

This new film presented by Katsuhiro Otomo of Akira fame, starts off with a teen girl walking into a strange menagerie picture show. Directed by Koji Morimoto (Digital Juice) The colorizations are a bit psychedelic in nature and may take a bit getting used to. The whole sequence makes for a heck of an introduction of the stories we’re about to see. It’s very much like Neo Tokyo opening with the warped view of a strange cat-girl and her pet going to see a show at a traveling circus, though those colorings stay constant whereas Short Peace tackles the full rainbow spectrum.

Then we get to the first of the four stories presented. The one entitled “Posessions” shows a clothing maker who runs into various forms of fabric tat are each possessed by a spirit of some kind and makes said items a bit challenging to work with at times. Much like the next two, this segment was a bit strange to get used to but lighthearted relatively. My date liked this one best I suspect in part because she used to cosplay and can probably relate to it a little, and I’m betting other similar hobbyists may follow suit.

Short Peace

Following this was “Gambo,” which again is in feudal Japan and focuses on a strange creature that comes out repeatedly to snatch women from a nearby village for rather nefarious purposes. At the same time though, a groupof armed men go after a Gambo, which is a special white bear which we come to learn has a more noble and human spirit than anyone realizes. After a plea from a small child, he runs off to deal with the problem at hand. This was the bloodiest of the four segments, and my date later advised everyone not to eat while watching it. Overall it was a pretty solid story with art that not as detailed as one might think it might be but there are good defining shapes on screen.

The final one entitled “Farewell To Arms” was my favorite of the lot and in a bit of a jarring move, goes war into a high tech future where war has seemingly decimated local populations. We’re introduced to several weapons disposal soldiers who wind up with the unenviable task of shutting down an unmanned mecha running amok with full weaponry. In one sense, seeing this was like the ending of Neo Tokyo’s segment The Order To Stop Construction, but this one is far more brutal and hard hitting. Anyone who knows me, will understand I’m a product of the 80s real robot era (Robotech, Zeta Gundam L-Gaim, etc) so this sequence was a total treat to watch. With the combination of fast paced events and high-tech detail displayed here, it fells like a cross between the opening sequences of Patlabor movie 2 and The Hurt Locker. Thanks to director Hajime Katoki (mech designer for multiple Gundam shows, as well as the aforementioned Patlabor 2), we’re treated to a serious sci-fi story with one of the craziest endings I’ve ever seen in an anime. My date and I just looked at each other and said “… What the hell did we just watch?”

We saw Short Peace as it travelled the country and seeing it on a big theatrical screen really did bring the beauty of the animation out in full. Also, as an old school anime fan, it was nice to see Emotion’s newest introduction sequence returning to the times when you’d see the stone Easter Island heads animated around a bit with 80s new age music in the background. This made for a fun experience overall and I’m looking forward to owning this movie on blu ray first chance I get.

Recently, I got to see this movie again during Anime Expo, this time with the English dub track. It was a decent enough set of performances with talents such as Luci Christian, Jason Douglas, Monica Rial, Cynthia Martinez and many others, but they didn’t resonate with me as much during the segments taking place in historical Japan. The Japanese voices felt more natural during those stories. I was able to get more from the futuristic Farewell To Weapons though, where English voices didn’t feel so out of place and I had the best time experiencing that segment again at Anime Expo.

Something told me that folks were going to like this movie and it turned out I was right as the blu rays and DVDs disappeared from Sentai Filmworks’s booth shortly after the con screening, like they were inhaled or freebased or something. As to the blu ray itself, the picture quality looked immaculate and the audio was clear and nice. I’d have liked more extras on it besides the trailer but on the other hand, it’s convenient that one can select a specific segment to play on the disc if they don’t want to watch the whole film just then. My only complaint about this movie is that it’s entirely too short and I want more. Other than that, it looks like Short Peace will be another quality purchase for anime fans to grab.

Grade: A-

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Guardians of the Galaxy is a well-executed love letter to 80s sci fi and music… that just so happens to be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

What They Say:
Brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits — Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Peter discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand — with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I can’t help but to think of Flash Gordon as I type this. There’s a genuine feeling of fun and wonder throughout the film. Writer / director James Gunn takes his audience on crazy journey into the unknown designed to educate veteran and newer comic movie fans alike.

The journey starts in Speilberg-ish fashion with a flashback to the late 80s, when young Peter Quill is pulled from the serenity of his Sony Walkman in order to say goodbye to his mother at the hospital. Soon after, mysterious lights appear in the sky and Peter is whisked away to parts unknown. We jump to present times in which Peter (Chris Pratt) is and adult scavenger working for Yondu (Michael Rooker). This is where the film gets lively as Peter goes to retrieve a small orb from its resting place and everything collapses in on him as a result.

Peter’s theft causes repercussions in ways he can’t possibly know about, which results in unwanted attentions from Gamora the assassin (Zoe Saldanna) , and bounty hunters known as Groot the talking tree (Vin Diesel) and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper). Also, The Nova Corps, the governing body of the planet Xandar led by Nova Prime (Glenn Close) take an interest in things, though they have to deal with a fragile truce they’ve secured with the Kree Empire. This is constantly being threatened by an extremist named Ronan The Accuser (Lee Pace) who simply wants all Xandarians dead. Meanwhile, Peter meets a brute named Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) who simply wants Ronan dead. Peter himself though just wants to sell this new orb he’s acquired and go on listening to his 80s music.

The thing is with this movie, you don’t have to know any of that to enjoy what takes place. Co-writer Nicole Perlman knew nothing of these characters before developing this screenplay but she helped make a solid script here that anyone can jump into. You don’t even have to have seen any of the other Marvel films to date. Though it does touch on a certain storyline developing since The Avengers movie was released, Guardians tells enough of a tale to stand on its own.

Through his shot selection and effects teams, Gunn crafts an excellent universe that feels totally convincing, especially in the later action-heavy scenes. There are some nice backgrounds throughout, but Xandar in particular is beautifully rendered, and stands comfortably next to the likes of Blade Runner and The Fifth Element. Various creatures are also nicely realized here and add to the Star Wars-styled aesthetic. One in particular is the villainous Thanos (Josh Brolin) who is seen briefly but emanates such a powerful presence that you can tell he’s going to be a brutal bad guy in whichever future film he gets to be the main antagonist. Also, it’s fun seeing effect creations Rocket and Groot interact fully with practical presences of Peter, Gamora and Drax.

Speaking of the Guardians themselves, they’re an entertaining crew who kept me laughing the whole time. You can easily see Chris Pratt enjoys playing Peter with laid-back confidence and enthusiasm, even in some of the character’s most painful moments. Saldanna gives Gamorra sexiness and hellified fighting ability, but she’s equally effective as Gomorra tries to understand Peter’s odd Earth-based idiosyncrasies and habits. Rocket comes across as an odd combination of Han Solo and Doctor Who. Bradley Cooper’s performance and the visual effects team help Rocket steal this movie at times, especially whenever Rocket and Groot have their Han and Chewie vibe. Vin Diesel’s Groot also is a scene stealer in his own right at various points, enough that I can pretty much guarantee which of his toys will be a big hit at Christmas. Drax though is a bit strange here as I don’t think I’ve seen him act this way in the comics (or Bautista act this way in the WWE for that matter) but his assimilation into the Guardians is written well for an introductory movie and actually works within certain parameters of Marvel lore.

So as to where I’d rank it compared to the rest of the movies to date… It’s definitely one of the top four besides Iron Man, The Avengers, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but not necessarily above or below those works; more off to the side. James Gunn and company have delivered a damned fine summer movie that deserves to be seen repeatedly. In fact, the screening I attended had none of the post-credit sequences that the Marvel movies have become known for, so I’ll be happily paying my money to see it again right alongside you guy, looking for more cameos and clues for future stories. But any way you slice it, Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely another winning entry into the Marvel cinematic universe.

Grade: A

What They Say:
From the Legendary Creator of Speed Racer and Gatchaman… Meet the REAL Man of Steel: Casshan!

When lightning strikes the prototype android BK-1, a new horror is unleashed on the world as the resulting monster Braking Boss begins taking over all other robots on Earth. Setting them against their creators in a massive orgy of planet-wide destruction! With humanity helpless in the face of Andro Force’s mechanical army, mankind’s only hope may be in the hands of Tetsuya Azuma, son of the creator of BK-1, who transfers his consciousness into an android body to become a newly-built man, the ultimate robot fighter: Casshan! Now together with his robot dog Flender and the beautiful Luna Kozuki, the daughter of another scientist and wielder of the most robot-lethal gun on the planet, Casshan is on a mission to clear his father’s name and save the Earth from the iron clutches of Braiking Boss! But things aren’t going to be easy, not when you’re three against thousands and Braiking Boss has some shocking surprises in store that will rip Casshan’s world in two! It’s the ultimate blast from the past as the battle for the future pits good bots against the bad in CASSHAN!

The Review:
Audio:
The Japanese Dolby 2.0 stereo track sounded good and although sometimes you could hear a slight screech from some of the higher-pitched sound effects, there was no distortion for the most part.

Video:
This show was originally broadcast in 1973, and looks good here. The cel animation holds up fine and colors are vibrant and steady. The nuances of old-school sketch-line animation are still fun to watch. The subtitles are colored (primarily yellow with occasional whites) and detailed appropriately, which makes them easy to read as needed.

Packaging:
Front of the box has an image of Casshan, Friender and Swanee breaking forward (similar to the closing credits of the show) on top of the red and white emblem on Casshan’s chest. The back has the text from the “what they say” section with screencaps midway down. Credits and specifications are in the lower thirds of the box, which hold 6 DVDs containing the entire series.

Menu:
The menus have Casshan on the left and a vertical listing of episodes on the right side with a cursor highlighting choices as desired.

Extras:
None.

However, lightning strikes the castle and BK-1 gains a nastier personality to augment his physical might and takes the viewpoint that humans are the ones who created pollution. Changing his name to Braiking Boss, an enormous regal-looking dictator robot, he has determined the best way eliminate pollution is to make sure the race most responsible for damaging the Earth is never allowed to hold power, and thus be subjugated at every turn, or eliminated to cut down on consumption of resources. Suffice it to say, the result is a twisted combination of The Terminator’s Skynet, and Batman villain Ra’s Al Ghul.

Braiking Boss gathers a vast mechanical army known as the Andro Force and slowly begins his unstoppable march across the world. At home, Dr. Kazuya and his son Tetsuya discuss how to stop them, while in the nearby village, Tetsuya’s lifetime friend Luna and her dog Lucky have a near fatal encounter with one of the robots. Luna grieves for Lucky at the Kazma home, but afterward, Dr. Kazuma tries an experiment where he transfers Lucky’s mind into a robotic canine body with crazy abilities, and renames the new pet Friender. Tetsuya sees this success and offers to have his father turn him into a powerful “newly-built man.” The doctor initially doesn’t want to since it’s likely he wont be able to turn Tetsuya back human, but they both decide humanity is in dire straits and nothing else can even slow down the robots, and thus Casshan is born.

It isn’t long before Braiking Boss comes for the family, capturing Dr. and Mrs. Kazuma in the process. Cashaan and Friender fight valiantly, but are unable to stop everything. Eventualy, Dr. Kazuma decides the best way to protect his wife is to put her spirit into a robotice swan he had as a pet for many years. He does so in secret so Braiking Boss won’t know to use her as any sort of hostage, and thus she proceeds to feed Casshern information on various Andro Force plans throughout the series. One such plan involves stopping Luna’s father who creates an electric weapon known as the MF Gun, capable of destroying robots while being non-fatal to humans. Things don’t go well for Dr. Kozuki, but Luna unites with Casshan in his memory and the pair resolve to defeat the Andro Force and hopefully restore and reunite the Kazuma family someday.

The series goes on to be a nice adventure drama that became a benchmark style for Tatsunoko Productions in the 60s and 70s. There are fantastic elements of course for this era of sci fi, such as Friender’s ability to morph into a car, jet, tank or submarine whenever Casshan needs a ride. (Braiking Boss naturally builds his own pet to counter this.) We also get sentient henchmen robots with varying colorful types of evil personalities. The 70s were a fun time for this time of entertainment geared toward kids and adults alike. Tatsunoko produced this and several other heroic anime such as Tekkaman The Space Knight and Hurricane Polymar, long before any of these and other characters would appear on the popular Tatsunoko Vs Capcom game for the Wii.

Still, it’s their other two more famous U.S. exports which invariably come to mind as I watch this show, namely Mach Go Go Go (Speed Racer) and Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets). I can’t help but to feel there’s a house style that the creator of these shows Tatsuo Yoshida had implemented. Beyond the sketch lines and sleek futuristic curves on the vehicles in these shows, there’s the serious emphasis on taking the perspective of the vehicles approaching their targets, as well as the characters’ martial arts chops and kicks, and depicted use of machine guns.

This typical action style remains present throughout Casshan for all 35 episodes. Many of the scripts either focus on Braiking inventing a new type of robot to stop Casshan or on the effect the growing conflict has on the people in the way, as Braiking sometimes works with humans willing to build new inventions (right before he kills them). Some stories sometimes people who may not be able to accept Casshan as a “newly built man” who isn’t human. Others focus on the fact that Casshan only has so much energy in his system, taken from solar energy recharges. As he gets weaker, he starts to become blind and can make a mistake in battle, even though he has a unrelenting spirit.

The weapons he faces get varied ranging from a set of robots who do their stack-&-attack bit into one big gestalt, robotic rats who swarm their enemies, a giant robot which Tetsuya used to pal around with as a kid, and many other varieties. Also, the world governments debate what to do as the Andro Force presence becomes bigger throughout the world while conventional military forces ineffective. Meanwhile Swanee, Friender, and Luna all help Casshan work to save humanity, but Braiking Boss becomes more intelligent and ruthless each day….

From a historical perspective, it’s interesting to note the talents who contributed to this series. For example, Takao Koyama served as series director long before he went on to write the screenplays for many of the Dragon Ball / DBZ movies and shows. Also, famed Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino did storyboards and directed several episodes here, and Yoshitaka Amano did character designs before moving to Gatchaman, Vampire Hunter D and Final Fantasy illustrations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG2W05xJ76o

In Summary:
I’d been very curious to see this series as my only real exposure to the franchise had been later adaptations including a 90s OAV series, the live action movie and the recent revamp Casshern Sins. Each adaptation presented the story in a bleak and depressing fashion. Watching the original was more fun both from a nostalgic perspective and for the fact that, although serious, the events here aren’t as morbid as later versions. Also, this is one of the most intriguing takes on environmental issues I’ve ever come across. So from a historical perspective and for those who like to reminisce about the sketch, cel and paint techniques of anime, I’d recommend grabbing Casshan when you get the chance.

Content Grade: A-/B+
Audio Grade: A+
Video Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: A
Menu Grade: A-
Extras Grade: N/A

Released By: Sentai Filmworks.
Release Date: March 4th, 2014
MSRP: $49.98
Running Time: 875 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Review Equipment: Panasonic 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation 3

This is a decent sequel that suffers from a bit of Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez trying to top… Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez.

What They Say:
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For weaves together two of Frank Miller’s classic stories with new tales in which the town’s most hard boiled citizens cross paths with some of its more repulsive inhabitants. In Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Dwight is hunted down by the only woman he ever loved, Ava Lord, and then watches his life go straight to hell. Chronologically, this story takes place prior to “The Big Fat Kill” (featured in the film Frank Miller’s Sin City) and explains how Dwight came to have a dramatically different face.

The Review:
This is the second film based on a series of black&white graphic novels written and drawn by Frank Miller. Often written to emulate the feel of hard-boiled crime noir detective novels by Mickey Spillaine and Raymond Chandler, the Sin City comics occur in haphazard order, kind of like a Quentin Tarantino movie. The protagonist (usually a man) finds some sort of crime or other dangerous element he must face in this enormously corrupt city where he’ll invariably wind up in one of two places at some point: a country music strip club called Kadie’s or a section of the city called Old Town, which is ruled entirely by prostitutes (who deal their own brand of ruthless justice). The fun in connecting these books has been in looking for small eyecatches depicting certain events to show which characters are alive at the time. There have been five lengthy stories and several smaller comics as well.

Whereas 3 of the lengthy stories were adapted for the first film, this sequel only tackles one previously produced and a couple other short stories. It opens with Marv (Mickey Rourke) narrating the events of a Wizard ½ comic called “Sin City: Just Another Saturday Night,” which has him recalling why he’s standing around a set of dead bodies. Then we get to one of two original stories created for the movie. This first one shows a young man named Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who’s just hit town and wants to test his incredible skills in a poker game hosted by Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). The next original story catches up with saloon dancer Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) who has fallen into an emotional and physical spiral since the death of her protector Det. John Hartigan (Bruce Willis in the first film).

After those appetizers though, we’re served the main course of the evening: the adaptation of A Dame To Kill For. This story focuses on a photographer (Josh Brolin) who’s a bit of an action junkie. He’s got some psychological issues from a past we know little about. After finishing one job, he gets a call from a key member of that past in the form of the gorgeous Ava Lord (Eva Green). She inspires serious hate within our hero but but nonetheless, he can’t resist her when she needs help. Her fears seemingly are justified when the menacing Manute (Dennis Haysbert replacing the late Michael Clarke Duncan from the first film) makes his appearance.

This is actually where the quality of the movie shines best. The comic was a mostly strong storyline for the Sin City series, and is adapted pretty faithfully here. There’s some excellent digital effects and cinematography, especially when illuminating Eva Green, who gives the strongest performance of the entire movie. As much as Rourke was the standout of the first film, Green carries A Dame To Kill For a good bit here. She’s both compelling and over-the-top in an entertaining way. Brolin spends his time chewing scenery in an anger-and-grit sandwich, even in the cheesy parts. Rodriguez gets the most out of his cast and his visuals teams on this segment. Even with some of the cartoony aspects due to FX team rotoscopes and exaggerated action scenes, this section really plays out like a 40s crime noir and feels more like a complete story than the other connecting segments (due more in part to the fact that it’s not split up like the other stories but still this was designed to be the highlight of the movie and does succeed).

Also the overall casting is excellent. I hadn’t read up on exactly who was doing which role or anything so I had a fun time watching the opening sequence and mentally matching the actors and parts. It’s best to go in with little knowledge on this part. Some for whatever reason have been recast from the first film while other newcomers look just like the comic characters they’re emulating.

The screenplay though is where things suffer a bit, but strangely is decent. The first film had 3 stories that were all actually decent comics but were shortened for the screen so story elements were noticeably absent and didn’t play out entirely as well in their theatrical forms. However, when the director’s cut DVD was released with each individual segment was restored, everything played out a bit better. For this movie, with the shorter segments clearly leading to Dame as the centerpiece, the flow actually feels a bit better, but the shorter segments don’t measure up as much. The Johnny story does feel like something that could come from the comics, given how the characters usually end up. The Nancy segment though feels more like something that was more tacked on than a natural progression for the character. It’s also crazier than anything before but gives the film a bit of an anti-climactic ending, which brings down the movie as a whole and makes one hope for a Director’s Cut DVD.

Overall, I had a fun time watching this movie, but I’m more of a Sin City fan used to the Robert Rodriguez style from Machete and From Dusk Til Dawn as well as Frank Miller’s immaculate atmosphere in noir comic form. To the casual moviegoer who may not have seen any of these elements, I think they’ll learn quickly the kind of world this us from the opening Marv segment and be entertained by A Dame To Kill For’s story, but the overall film will likely be something to be an acquired taste so I’ll only be able to give a partial recommendation here.

Grade B-

What They Say:
THE ORIGINAL SUPER ROBOT CLASSIC ON DVD AT LAST!
Koji Kabuto’s grandfather has discovered two resources which can save humanity: Photon Light Energy and the ultra-impregnable Super Alloy Z. However, Dr. Kabuto’s research is abruptly cut off when the evil Dr. Hell sends his trusted lieutenant, the bisected Baron Ashura, to assassinate him! Koji, now orphaned along with younger brother Shiro, swear revenge using Dr. Kabuto’s last and greatest invention: the super robot Mazinger Z!

Joined by Dr. Kabuto’s successor, Dr. Yumi, his daughter Sayaka, and her research robot Aphrodite A, Koji sets out to protect Japan from Dr. Hell’s menacing mechanical beasts and ensure the peaceful work of the Photon Light Institute. Can Koji and Sayaka, along with local bully boy Boss, prevent the most dangerous villains from running amok and conquering the world?

For everybody who’s ever shouted attack names along with their favorite heroes or wished their toys came with a proper rocket punch, Mazinger-Z is the must see starting point in this beloved anime genre.

Created by legendary manga artist Go Nagai (Devilman, Getter Robo) , Mazinger Z first aired in 1972. This set contains episodes 1-46 uncut in the original Japanese with English subtitles, making it the first release of the original Mazinger Z in North America.

The Review:
Audio:
The only audio present here is Japanese Dolby stereo 2.0 and it sounds pretty good without any noticeable distortions.

Video:
This series was originally broadcast in 1972, and looks good here. The cel animation holds up fine and colors are vibrant and steady. The nuances of old-school sketch-line animation are still fun to watch. The subtitles are colored and detailed appropriately, which makes them easy to read as needed.

Packaging:
The front of the box has the villainous Baron Ashura looking ahead along with his many mechanical beasts. Mazinger Z itself stands in the foreground with the Masthead and volume denotation in the lower thirds. The back has the “what they said” text vertically on the right side of and screen shots shown vertically on the left. Disc credits and specifications are shown in the lower thirds. The box itself is meant to hold 5 DVDs, and a sixth one is inside in its own paper slip sleeve.

Menu:
With many of the cast and mecha in the background, the episodes are listed vertically in yellow text on the left side of the screen. The right shows the series masthead and the playback options, including “play all” or “English subtitles on / off.” The show theme plays in the background.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This is a review I’ve been looking forward to working on a while now. If you’ve read any of my previous work here, you might know I’m a huge fan of super robots and enjoy learning the history of this anime genre. Many of my contemporaries had a chance to view this show when it was on American TV as the heavily edited Tranzor-Z, or got to collect the obscenely large toys of this and other robots collectively renamed Shogun Warriors.

I didn’t get to experience that trend really until ’84-’85 when I got to watch shows like Voltron, Mighty Orbots, Saber Rider and the like. When I got to collect anime more seriously in later years, it was fun to learn about Dancougar, Dangaio and similar stories where heroes would have to team together in their stack-&-attack super robots to fight off a series of mechanical monsters unleashed by the main villain until the final showdown. It was during this period I learned the significance of names like Go Nagai, Ken Ishikawa, Toshiro Hirano, and such. Most of the super robot genre pretty much vanished by the early 90s though except for periodic revivals of Getter Robo and Mazinger (more on these shows below) and that was about 20 years ago. A lot of contemporary fans have come up in an era of martial arts, magical girls, fantasy and varying other genres that really don’t entirely relate to super robots.

So the challenge here: how to talk objectively about such a classic show in a genre that doesn’t seem to get much exposure nowadays?

Well, let’s start with what kids’ entertainment was like in the 70’s and move forward to now. Back then you had some super robots being heroic like Gigantor and Johnny Sokko with his Giant Robot. The difference was that the leading character would send instructions to the big guy by remote control. When Go Nagai and Toei developed Mazinger Z, this was the first show that had a hero pilot the mech into actual combat, giving the illusion that he was the robot in question instead of him sending off something else to do the fighting while watching passively. Becoming part of the machine lent to a newer dynamic in storytelling.

The hero in question of Mazinger Z is Koji Kabuto. He’s a young guy just been given a giant robot to pilot from his grandfather. In terms of personality…. Well…. He’s…. ok he’s a bit of a d**k. I can’t even lie about this. He’s hot-headed and very sexist toward the female lead Sayaka. Also, he tends to rush headlong into situations, causing Mazinger itself to be in danger. For all the weaponry the great robot has such as photon beams and detachable rocket punch, the mecha beasts Doctor Hell and Baron Ashura throw at him do exploit some weaknesses Mazinger Z possesses. Koji does get better over time as the pilot, sometimes with the scientist team helping to devise new strategies for the episode. Koji’s relationship with Sayaka stabilizes as well, given the fact she pilots the Aphrodite A with its infamous boob missiles in order to help Koji fight off the bad guys. There’s also a cast of bumbling bullies led by the boisterous Boss who come to be somewhat friends to Koji and much more important (and entertaining) later on in the series.

Meanwhile, the villainous scientist Doctor Hell works to conquer the world in new ways each week (probably just to show everyone how cool his name is.) He often assisted by his lead henchman… or henchwoman depending how you look at this character at the time. Literally half the face is that of a woman speaking a female voice, while the other side of his profile is that of authoritative man. Sometime the perspective will focus face front and you hear both voices speaking at the same time. (I’ve often wondered how Ashura would fare on a date with the androgynous Berg Katse from Gatchaman, but I digress…) This remains one of the more interesting dynamics of the series, as Ashura spends half the time making new monsters, and the other half begging Doctor Hell for forgiveness after Mazinger defeats his bad ‘bot of the week. At around the 40th episode or so, we get introduced to Doctor Hell’s newest henchman Col. Brocken, a monocle-wearing commander who uses his military-dressed body to carry around his head (!) and commands an army of WW2-styled soldiers. Col. Brocken is fiercely determined to take out Mazinger Z and replace Baron Ashura at any cost, which changes the game a bit (especially since Doctor Hell enjoys a bit of competition).

The plots do get a bit ridiculous at times, but what do you expect from a 70s kids show? At one point for example, the bad guys discover Grandpa Kabuto built a female Mazinger robot that was supposed to be self directed to help the main mecha because she was in love. Naturally, Sayaka is jealous and suspicious when she appears but saddened like everyone else by the episode’s ending. The rest of the show has the mecha bests focusing on the fact that Mazinger Z can’t fly, until eventually the Photon Light team build a set of flying wings called the Jet Scrander, a mechanism that gets its own theme song when it bursts from the mountains and attaches to Mazinger Z in times of need.

Go Nagai is credited with Mazinger Z being the first of the super robot genre. However, series director Tomoharu Katsumata should definitely get some of the credit for helping to make this archetype so popular. He did such a good job that he was retained to do many of the iconic super robot shows that made Nagai (and co-creator Ken Ishiikawa) household names for these shows. Katsumata eventually directed Getter Robo, UFO Robo Grendizer, Gaiking, and Leiji Matsumoto’s Dangard Ace. Come to think of it, Katsumata also directed Matsumoto’s legendary character Captain Harlock in the feature film Arcadia of My Youth, so if you look at these and other titles in his resume, Katsumata’s got a heck of a track record. The action gets goofy at times but the show itself is often entertaining.

In Summary:

Mazinger Z is a lot of fun from an historical perspective in knowing what entertained Japanese children and influenced them (and eventually us) to enjoy the prospect of huge hunks of humanoid metal beating the hell out of each other. The heroic super-robot genre has largely died off now in more recent years outside of revivals such as some Getter Robo shows, Gaogaigar, Gurren Lagann and Go Nagai’s Koji Kabuto coming back for Mazinkaiser and Shin Mazinger Z-Hen. It wasn’t meant for deep philosophical discussion like Evangelion or to inspire political debates the way much of Mobile Suit Gundam has over the years. Mazinger Z has a recyclable plot with many variations that lasted for close to two years broadcast time, and influenced anime companies to create even more works around this theme for many years. If you go in looking for this and nothing really deeper the way filmgoers went to enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy’s retro-styled sci-fi, you should be all right when viewing this series. Perhaps it’ll inspire you to tell your own stories the way Guilermo Del Toro was in producing Pacific Rim. Discotek Media has done a good job putting out this first set so far and I’m looking forward to the conclusion in the show’s second set.

Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: A+
Video Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: A
Menu Grade: A-
Extras Grade: N/A

Released By: Discotek Media
Release Date: April 29th, 2014
MSRP: $69.95
Running Time: 1150 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Review Equipment:
Panasonic 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation 3

The very first OAV series ever produced comes to the U.S. unaltered. How will this release fare in the modern anime market? Let’s see.

What They Say:
THERE’S A REBELLION BREWING ON THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON!

Shun Nonomura is a young man out of Monopolis, a sprawling miner’s colony on the lunar surface. His people mine helium-3 and other essentials for the Earth but in the late 21st century, Earth’s resources are depleted and the planetary government has resorted to authoritarian rule to get what they want. As the put-upon miners, including Shun’s own family and friends, start to organize a revolt, they come under attack from Earth’s new lunar commander: Alex Leiger, a military man unafraid to use force to put down the uprising!

As Shun’s idealism and Alex’s chilly pragmatism clash, Monopolis is thrown into chaos. The last, best hope for victory lies within a mysterious alien artifact that the humans worship as a god – Dallos!

Released in four parts starting in December 1983, DALLOS is an early directorial effort by the great Mamoru Oshii (Ghost In The Shell, Patlabor), which made history as the first anime OVA (original video animation) ever created.

The Review:
Audio:
The audio sounds good in Japanese stereo 2.0. No distortions here. Oh, and no, the English dub from years past isn’t present on this release. (It wouldn’t fit anyway.)

Video:
As this is the very first OAV ever created, the picture still holds up The cel animation holds up fine and colors are vibrant and steady. The nuances of old-school sketch-line animation are still fun to watch. The subtitles are colored and detailed appropriately, which makes them easy to read as needed.

Packaging:
The front cover has a lonely astronaut walking through a a massive graveyard on what is presumably Earth’s moon as the planet can be seen in the distance, with the title masthead in the upper portions. The back has the text from the “what they say” segment with screencaps from the videos in the top and middle sections, and a listing of extra features and production credits at the bottom.

Menu:
The menus have the opening sequence music playing with the poster and masthead in the backdrop. There are texted playback options in lower thirds. Easy to read.

Extras:
The pilot movie is an interesting history about how man emigrated to space following some of the real-life developments in space exploration. It talks of generations building various mining areas and terraforming some sections of Earth’s moon. It speaks to eventually descendants wondering why they’re working for a world they’ve never seen as well as the mystery of one station they’ve built up.

The “Remembering Dallos” segment has a lot of info from director Mamorou Oshii and the animation and production team. We come to learn how they decided to do an anime straight for the home video market with the conscious decision not to make anything with higher production quality than theatrical films so as not to hurt that industry. It’s an 18 minute video that is very fascinating material for animation junkies.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This release brings back a lot of memories I remember the late 80s when I’d just started collecting anime that I’d learned was sitting on the shelves of Blockbuster Videos at the time. Much of it had been edited down and found in the kids’ animation section, as Celebrity Home Video had taken several titles to make them more marketable for the U.S. At the time I first found this one, it was done up as a single movie entitled Moon Station Dallos, though much of the footage had been cut out and the story was a bit more difficult to follow.

Watching this version though many years later with the extras listed above, it’s an entirely different experience, as we start off in the middle of an open city where police are chasing an apparent group of criminals, who wind up at desolate area outside of town. Single officer named commander star shows up and, with lethal fighting skills and serious strength, wipes out the group. The other officers catch up and note one of the group named Dog McCoy is missing and went into an area called Level 3, where it’s supposedly difficult to arrest even known criminals.
Star leaves as he has to prepare for an official from Earth.

This is where we learn the city we’ve been focusing on isn’t on humanity’s homeworld, but is a moonbase, called Monopolis. The place looks like earth city with blu skies, sunlight and breathable atmosphere. The focus shifts to a young man named Shun who’s working on a mechanical arm. Suddenly a dog comes to attack but Shun defends himself. Afterward, a mysterious man pops up and says something about using mine tools as weapons. Shun and Rachel note police are in town with their dogs looking for someone.

They encounter Dog, who may be leading a revolutionary movement in line with many people who’ve been working to mine entirely on this and other moon bases but with no knowledge of what life is like on Earth. There has been some unrest before, which likely involved Shun’s brother at one point. Through various adventures, the group winds up in a section of the moon with strangely advanced technologies with an advanced (and seemingly sentient) defense system. Meanwhile, the local government begins to clash with more and more protestors and events get more brutal and a bloody over the course of the series. This is highlighted at one point by a pack of vicious tracking dogs, cloned from Alex’s own pet Geronimo. Shun makes his way through all these elements though and comes to learn the true nature of the colonists’ past and what his role could potentially be for the future.

Studio Pierrot is known currently for popular anime such as Naruto and Bleach, but they established a distinctive style in the 80s on works like Saber rider (AKA Star Musketeer Bismark), Mysterious Cities of Gold, Area 88 and Urisei Yatsura. Fast moving scenery backgrounds behind detailed mecha and weaponry became staples of 80s anime, and Dallos was likely an influential work for its animation style as well as its format. There were uses of blood that couldn’t be shown on TV anime (where all blood was white and well, um… organic scenes weren’t as graphically depicted.)

The story though feels disjointed a bit and we don’t get entirely a sense of resolution at the end of things. The characters grow a bit but sometimes feel stiff and useless. I got the sense this might be based on some events in other parts of the world just from the foundations of the story but not much progression other than some of the discoveries Shun makes. The action sequences are fun at times to take in, especially for the concept of people skiing on the moon surface to get around. It’s also nice to see some early aspects of Oshii’s work in a colorful environment before he established himself as a master of bleak worlds with movies like Patlabor 2, Ghost In The Shell and Jin roh among others. You do see some of his early themes of oppressive government vs citizens in this series as well. He uses some odd music choices throughout the series as sometimes seemingly joyful music pops up in the most dire situations at times.

In Summary:
Dallos is a decent series but not a great one by any stretch. For a historical prospect, this is a very solid release to have in wanting to learn how anime progressed and evolved for artistic techniques and economic profitability during the 80s. On its own merits, Dallos could’ve used a re-write during production to clean up a couple screenplay issues, but it’s still enjoyable for nostalgia of 80s anime style at least in order to understand how the OAV format began to gain traction and viability. Therefore, I do recommend grabbing it when you can.

Features:
Japanese Language, English Subtitles, Pilot film, Interview with series creators

Content Grade: B
Audio Grade: A+
Video Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: A
Menu Grade: A
Extras Grade: A+

Released By: Discotek Media / Eastern Star Inc.
Release Date: February 25, 2014
MSRP: $24.95
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1, 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen

Review Equipment:
Sony Playstation 3, Samsung 720 HDTV, Marantz reciever

What They Say:
Childhood’s End
This is the story of a man who has yet to realize what destiny holds in store for him… Far in the future, humans have lived underground, quietly and restlessly, for hundreds of years, suffering from frequent earthquake and land subsidence. In Giha Village, one such underground community, live two young men. Simon is shy and naive, while Kamina believes in existence of a “surface” world above their heads.

Their destinies start moving drastically when the ceiling falls and a gigantic “Gunmen” and a beautiful girl named Yoko with a superconductive rifle come from the surface. Kamina, Simon and Yoko get on the “Lagann” that Simon digs out from the ground, and jump out to the surface! However, the surface is not such a dreamland as Kamina imagined. The world is reined by the Spiral King and his army. Kamina and Simon, along with their comrades challenge the Spiral King to change the desperate world to the one with hope for the future by Gurren Lagann!

The Lights in the Sky Are Stars
“When the heavens are pierced open, the young man sees a path to the future…”

Valiantly persevering through the traumatic aftermath of previous events, Team Dai-Gurren finally reaches Teppelin, the royal capital, where Simon battles the Spiral King, Lordgenome. Seven years pass after the battle of Teppelin, and humans reclaim the surface of the earth and enjoy an unprecedented period of peace and PROSPERITY. However, humanity’s increasing population growth triggers the sudden emergence of an unknown, powerful enemy.

The Review:
Audio: 
There are two audio tracks present on these discs, both in Japanese. One is DTS HD Master Audio 5.1; the other is Linear PCM Stereo. Both came out very strong on my audio system.

Video:
This is some gorgeous animation, particularly in the second film. The footage is taken primarily from the TV series but looks slick for the movies here. The hues are very bold and there’s no artifacting anywhere. All in all, this makes for a great presentation of the material

Packaging:
There’s a box here with black on the front. The symbol for Team Gurren is in grey, and the title masthead is metallic red with extra white text at the bottom. On the back there’s an impressive poster-style picture of all the characters. In addition, there’s a detachable sliding white paper with the name of the movie, features, bar code and other official data. Inside are two separate blu ray cases, one for each film. Both have inserts with even more artwork and the names of the respective films. It’s all very pretty, but no where on the packaging is ther any description of the films in question. Whoever designed this probably assumed the buyer would instantly know what these movies are about. However if they didn’t, they’d get no real information prior to purchase here.

Menu:
There are multiple screens of different clips from the films being run on a wall that rotates in various directions continuously with music from the films playing in the background. Menu options are listed horizontally across the bottom.

Extras:
Textless Ending for both films. They look nice but, there’s really nothing else here.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The two movies in this set cover the events of the Gurren Lagann TV series but ast a quicker pace with a bit better structure for feature length storytelling. “Childhood’s End” covers the first half of the series. On a futuristic Earth, humanity has been driven underground by a set of aliens who look like giant faced living mecha, ruled by the Spiral King Lordgenome. Humans make their way drilling from one area of the Earth to the next while living in constant fear of earthquakes naturally. One young boy named Simon digs his way around while being shunned by fellow villagers. The only real friend he has is his boisterous brother Kamina, who is determined to see the surface world no matter what anyone says. Simon drills his way around and encounters a strange drill bit called the Core Drill, as well as a peculiar mecha that also looks like a giant face.

At nearly the same time, surface aliens attack and Simon learns that his newfound mecha, called a Gunmen can fight off these creatures, especially when combined Kamina’s equally strange mecha which he captures on the surface. Kamina invites Simon to be part of his Team Gurren, and they eventually come to call their combined mecha Gurren Lagann. Together with a lovely rifle-wielding warrior girl named Yoko, they set out on a multi-year quest to lead humanity to reclaim the Earth from the invaders.

This movie brings together many folks who wind up driving seemingly living mecha of sort in hopes of driving the invaders away. The screenplay moves along at a brisk pace and feels like a lot of fun, which resonates even more when the group suffers a devastating loss. It’s a powerful, poignant moment that sees even the Gurren Lagann mecha itself crying in the rain. Soon after a young girl named Nia appears and changes the course of the story as the group winds up battling Lordgenome himself.

The events of the second film entitled “The Lights In The Sky Are Stars” take up seven years after the initial battles as humanity is once again a prosperous industrial society living on the surface of the earth. Many of the team have gone on to marry and / or pursue their life dreams. However, when the world’s population reaches one million, a new program created by the “Anti Spiral” race activates, sending the moon hurtling toward Earth and utilizing Nia as a powerful medium. The team reunites to take on this menace as well as sentiments of anger at Simon eventually for failing to protect humanity. The story gets grander and more cosmic as we see stars, planets, and even galaxies hurled at each other in the name of freedom…. And really big drills.

Direction by Hiroyuki Imaishi . (Kill La Kill) gets as crazy hell on this series, with hyper-kinetic energy depicted by outlandish amounts of sketch lines and implied motion. If you’ve seen his previous work on the series Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (or heck if you grew up watching some aspects of the Powerpuff Girls) you may have an idea what the show is like. You could add in influences from giant robot shows by Go Nagai (Mazinkaiser) and Ken Ishikawa (Getter Robo) considering how wild the mecha designs get. The enemy monsters in particular remind me of the living enemy Mikene Beasts from the Great Mazinger TV series. I’d though I’d seen it all during Getter Robo Armageddon which had planetary conflicts, but the Gurren Lagann crew were determined to top that. The story is both funny and epic, with some poignant moment every so often for good pacing. Several years are covered and if almost feels like a tale of two anime considering how many events are covered in the story. There’s also Imashi’s addiction to drills which pops up throughout the series. In one of the extras segments, producer Yasuhiro Takeda notes ‘the director’s love of drills is almost child-like.’

In Summary:
If you don’t have a vivid imagination, nothing I say here will likely convince you to try these films. The events depicted here are too fantastic for conventional suspension of disbelief. But, if you have within you a taste for adventure (as well as a need for hot blooded passion required for super robot shows since the 70s), give this set a try. I believe you won’t be disappointed.

Content Grade: A
Audio Grade:  A
Video Grade:  A+
Packaging Grade:  B+
Menu Grade:  A
Extras Grade:  C

Released By: Aniplex USA
Release Date:  July 15th, 2014
MSRP: $79.98
Running Time: Movie 1: 112 minutes Movie 2, 126 minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio:   1.78:! Widescreen

Review Equipment: Panasonic 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation 3

This is a two part addition to the Ten Years Later series. To begin with, Maetel Legend is a 2-part OAV from 2000 that was designed to add to a vast mythos created by anime and manga maker Leiji Matsumoto.  The groundwork was laid in the late 70s when the TV shows Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 were produced. Soon after in the early 80s two GE999 films were created as was an origin story for Captain Harlock entitled Arcadia of My Youth, with a subsequent TV show as well. There was also another TV series produced in this period entitled Queen Millennia: The Queen of 1000 Years.

For a long while after then, there weren’t any anime projects for Matsumoto’s galaxy spanning space operas. Then in the mid-90s, there was a renaissance of anime works about these characters including Harlock Saga, Queen Emeraldas, Cosmowarrior Zero, Galaxy Railways, Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy and the subject of this article, Maetel Legend. Throughout all these works, there have been two women who’ve played crucial roles in these storylines: Maetel, the mysterious traveler frequently seen on the Galaxy Express trains, and Emeraldas, the space pirate with an all-android crew. Maetel Legend was conceived to give these characters their own origin story, which also ties to another character in these works.

We’re shown the planet La Metalle (last seen in the Queen Millennia anime) which is decaying due to the fact its sun is dying. As a result the population is starting to die off and a cyborg scientist named Hardgear decides the best way to save the people is to put everyone into machine bodies that can last forever if need be. The Queen decides to order all her people to take on this process (due to the fact, it turns out, that Hardgear has injected her with nanites to convert and ultimately control The Queen.) However, her twin daughters, Maetel and Emeraldas, choose not to go along with this and work to fight off Hardgear’s plans.

Until this video was released, it was never known these two were sisters. They clearly knew each other in previous Matsumoto related anime, but the connection was never established beforehand. Seeing them in this video was somewhat interesting as Maetel is shown to be gentle and a bit of a princess in her demeanor. Emeraldas on the other hand is very much an action oriented character with a fierce spirit, and it’s easy to see how she became a space pirate eventually. For anyone who’s ever watched the Queen Millennia series, it’s also a bit of a tragedy as we see her descent into madness, ultimately becoming the Galaxy Express 999 villain Queen Promethium.

In the space opera genre, which much of Leiji Matsumoto’s works popularized, there’s a lot of drama and a general feel of intense emotion caused by desperate odds that characters must face and/or painful/romantic situations they must endure. Unfortunately, the screenplay here by Mugi Kamio and the direction of Kazuyoshi Yokota falls flat compared to many Matsumoto-based entries in the genre. Sure, the sisters have a seemingly impossible problem to solve, but something about the execution here feels off. It may simply be because of the comparative budget for an OAV shown here as opposed to movie budgets for such stories; perhaps it simply doesn’t measure up to the execution of scenes by director Rintaro on the GE999 films. For Maetel Legend, the tone at times feels a bit more fast-paced like the Dirty Pair anime (sci-fi misadventures of two female troubleshooters). Still, it’s nice to see some fleshing out of these peoples’ origins, even if the overall effort is average at best.

The OAVs were brought to the U.S. by Central Park Media. The voice acting work is all right though so there is that. Lisa Ortiz (of Slayers fame) and Veronica Tyler play off each other well as Maetel and Emeraldas, respectively. Even though this is an origin story of sorts, it still feels a little strange to hear Maetel being a bit less self-assured than usual, compared to earlier works. Rachael Lillis is convincing enough as the once heroic Queen La Andromeda decays into to villainous Promethium.

Funny enough, the last time La Andromeda was seen in the U.S. was on the series Captain Harlock and The Queen of 1000 Years (two anime edited together by Harmony Gold to create a 65 episode single series, even though these shows originally took place 1000 years apart from each other.) However, this was something that was broadcast in the 80s and likely thought of not noticed since that series was little more than a footnote in anime history by the time 2001 came around and Central Park Media acquired and sold Maetel Legend for the home markets. In addition, other sci-fi shows like Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star and Trigun were finding favor with American audiences looking for new animation techniques and memorable characters showing for long periods on Cartoon Network television at this point. Maetel Legend on the other hand was a short OAV series with less distribution and older looking designs, which didn’t connect with American fans nearly as much.

In Japan, the videos did well enough to earn a 2004 follow-up TV series entitled Space Symphony Maetel, showing more of the origins of Matsumoto’s favorite characters. This is the second part in which we see Maetel return to La Metalle only to find her mother Promescium attempting to force the planet’s population into becoming machine people. She meets a young boy named Nasuka who now lives for revenge against Promescium. The show itself is ok, like the OAVs, though there’s more time to develop a decent storyline. Familiar subplots from GE 999 are slowly revealed, making the show more fun for long time Matsumoto fans.

Another series entitled Galaxy Railways was produced about a team of soldiers who work on different galactic trains besides the 999. This one was not only imported to the U.S. by Funimation, but also earned a sequel TV series in its own right as well as a 4-volume OAV series entitled A Letter From The Abandoned Planet in which the Galaxy Railways characters go to search for the 999, which has turned up missing.

However, neither this GR sequel nor Space Symphony Maetel have ever been imported to the American market. Central Park Media closed its doors for good in 2009, so the license for Maetel Legend has remained available for some time as of this writing. Other long standing Matsumoto-based works like Captain Harlock and GE 999 have remained classic icons of anime fandom to some degree in America which are cosplayed and discussed at anime convention panels. The characters are also still thought of very fondly in Japan with merchandise, trains and even boat rides dedicated to them as well as a recent all CG Captain Harlock movie released in theaters last year. Maetel Legend itself though remains an obscure (and somewhat forgettable) bit of anime history for U.S. fandom and will likely remain that way unless another importer chooses to license it.

For more information on how the various Leiji Matsumoto anime connect together, visit Corn Pone Flicks’ Captain Harlock Archives found at this site: http://www.cornponeflicks.org/harlock/harlockmain.html

What They Say:
NEW YORK CITY IS IN CRISIS; IS THIS GOODBYE FOR LADY LIBERTY?
Foiled repeatedly by the predictions of Interpol’s supercomputer, professional looter Lupin the Third has quit his life of crime. Howerver, his partner Jigen crawls out of the woodwork, tempting him with one last job recovering the Super Egg, a massive diamond hidden somewhere inside the Statue of Liberty. Suddenly a sinister secret organization and a young computer genius are thrown into the mix, and just whose side is the buxom Fujiko on this time?

The Review:
Audio:
There are two audio tracks present: the original Japanese track and the English dub in Doby 2.0 stereo. Neither had any issues as both sounded good during playback.

Video:
This movie was originally broadcast on Japanese TV in 1989, and looks good here. The cel animation holds up fine and colors are vibrant and steady. The nuances of old-school sketch-line animation are still fun to watch. The subtitles are colored and detailed appropriately, which makes them easy to read as needed.

Packaging:
The front contains a colored painting / drawing of the Lupin Gang with Lupin himself holding the Super Egg and everyone in action poses mixed in with movie-specific characters around the Statue of Liberty and the title masthead in the lower thirds. The rear has a close-up of Lupin and JigenLady Liberty’s head, on the upper right side, and the “what they say” text on the upper left. The features are listed in the middle with a set of screencaps just below. Official data is contained in the lower thirds.

Menu:
The picture from the front cover is mixed with a map-like papyrus-styled backdrop. The masthead and menu options take up the left side and are easy to navigate. The R&B inspired closing theme “Twilight Dawn” loops in the background for a nice ambiance.
Extras: Japanese Language with optional English subtitles, English Language, Feature Commentary with Anime News Network’s Mike Toole, Liner notes written and compiled by Lupinthe3rd.com Staff, Original Television Spot, Image Gallery. Much like the Secret of Mamo release. The liner notes are quite extensive and educational, worthy of much reading time.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One dark stormy night, Inspector Zeningata goes in Interpol to check on the Lupin files… and finds Lupin is there disguised as him, attempting to eliminate all of Interpol’s computer files. The elusive thief escapes from Zeningata’s clutches as the film begins.

Eventually, we see super-shooter Daisuke Jigen put down a few back alley thugs to visit Lupin in the city, where he’s settled down with his current girlfriend and doesn’t want to go against Interpol’s computer (which has been predicting his moves) anymore. Jigen insists on doing one last job though in order to find a huge diamond called the Super Egg, a legendary jewel said to be hidden somewhere within The Statue of Liberty. The pair run off to steal lady liberty so they can have time to examine it at their leisure, but realize this is only the beginning of a much deeper mystery, which a diminutive computer hacker is only too happy to help solve…

Meanwhile, Goemon the Samurai is off being a bodyguard for a beautiful woman and is working hard to adhere to his vow of chastity for this assignment. Meanwhile, the lovely Fujiko Mine is attempting to solve her own mystery with a wealthy gentleman aboard his yacht. Eventually though, her quest takes a turn for the deadly serious ad she accidentally infiltrates a cult with rather nasty intentions. Also in the mix is a super program called the Ultravirus which could possibly help solve Lupin’s troubles.

Now this being a movie, what’re the odds all these elements are related in some way? Probably just a coincidence riiiight?

Yeah, well everything intertwines as you’d expect from the Lupin mystery. Betrayals and thievery ensue at the proper times as secrets are revealed. This was the first of the many feature length TV specials that have been produced over the years. This one in particular was directed by Osamu Dezaki, who feels like an interesting choice for a comedy mystery. His dramatic style had become legendary on works such as Rose of Versailles, Space Adventure Cobra and Golgo 13 by this point of his career. The tropes he’d developed particularly for Golgo 13 seem to apply appropriately here with jazzy background music, well-executed gunfights, upper corner flares to denote the time of day and Dezaki’s famous technique called the Postcard Method, in which he’d stop all the action on a painted sketch for dramatic effect. On the alternative track anime guru Mike Toole talks about Dezaki’s work expertly. I even came away with a few bits I hadn’t thought of before.

The English dub was produced by Manga UK and is generally solid, once you get past the scene where English actors are using really bad French accents. Bill Dufries mad for a zany, competent Lupin and if he’d not been so, the rest of the dub would’ve been for naught. Ditto for the rest of the Lupin mainstays. Personally, I still have trouble with Lupin himself being referred to as Wolf throughout the film, but understand it was due to legal reasons associated with the name and the fact various Lupin films had been taken by different licensors at the time.

In Summary:
The Dezaki elements help the mystery aspect play out nicely, though at times given this is a comedy at times I do wish the film could’ve been funnier, but that’s just a personal preference. Nevertheless, Bye Bye Lady Liberty is one of the most solid of the Lupin specials / movies / etc. and one I’m glad to finally have in the U.S. officially.

Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: A+
Video Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: A
Menu Grade: A-
Extras Grade: A+

Released By: Discotek Media
Release Date: March 25th, 2014
MSRP: $24.95
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1, 4:3 Full frame

Review Equipment:
Panasonic 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Marantz stereo receiver

Hey, everyone. A couple years back, I decided to write a piece looking at the best comic and cartoon based films over a long period of time in order to talk about why they were so entertaining. We live in a time when more Hollywood studios recognize the value in not only buying the rights to these characters names but also putting into the scripts whatever elements made fans of said characters in the first place. Recently, Warner Brothers / DC Comics and Marvel have unveiled plans for many productions over the next 5-6 years and some independent works based on comics are in the planning stages as well. So I doubt I’ll really have a need to revisit this article again as it looks like there’ll be little need anymore. There are a lot of movies now (good and bad and REALLY fragging bad), so in an attempt to restrain myself a bit, I decided to limit to 30 movies spread over two lists.

Now, a few criteria went into these lists. First off, I made two lists because I didn’t want one movie and its sequels to dominate all positions. It’d be a boring piece to write that way. I wanted to celebrate high quality works from different sections of comic based lore. So I made the preliminary list of 15 slots for the sequels and films that were decent or pretty good so as not to overshadow everything on the main list, which I use to spread the love around to as many different films as I could possibly do in another 15 slots. This time, I allowed for some honorable mentions that I didn’t elaborate on but felt should be noted.

Another criteria here is that the films in question were based on pre-existing comics. So although there were some really good ones based on super powered people like say, The Incredibles, Hancock, or Chronicle, they weren’t eligible for this piece. I mixed in ones based on a specific graphic novel with ones simply based on existing characters with long histories. Either way, there’s some adaptation used for screen time here. For the characters with decades-long histories, there’s some amalgamation of their stories. Sometimes, it’s just the execution that accounts for the quality of the final product.

I also chose to focus on live-action movies based on comics here. For one thing, the challenges of translating an art based medium to a live practical medium are inherently different than ones for making an art based medium like comics into animation. If I tried to account for every other source medium, I’d never have time to get up from this computer

Just to let you know, by the way, there’s a couple I haven’t seen yet such as Ghost World, American Splendor, and Kick Ass. I haven’t had time leading up to the deadline for this article, but I reserve the right to do so and revisit this piece at a future date. Hence, part of the reason the title has ‘For a while yet…’ at the end. Another reason for that though is the number of potentially good films coming out in the next few years as Marvel will begin working on their ‘Phase Three’ movies, Warner will be pushing their highly anticipated Batman vs Superman movie heavily en route to their eventual Justice League movie. Sony…. will do… whatever they have planned for Spider Man this week? *shrug*

Oh, and one last thing… there’s only 30 slots here and so, I tried to come up with some good ones, while others, I just simply couldn’t make room for. If I didn’t do so for your favorite movie to discuss, it’s not because I was trying to insult your tastes, hurt your feelings or shoot your dog. I might have liked it, just not enough to put it here. Or, I might’ve given in to peer pressure, watched said movie, and figured out I really hated everything that was on the screen (such as the overrated Scott Pilgrim) and so chose not to list it. If there’s a problem, feel free to tell me I’m wrong and why you think so, in as eloquent a manner you might choose. I’ll be sitting right here on the other end…. smiling broadly (unless it’s a truly compelling argument which I’ll probably respond to). That’s what creating list articles are for. Debating, and celebrating. It’s a celebration, bitches! Enjoy yourself!

Now that said, movies are as follows….

Honorable mentions: Captain America: The First Avenger, Daredevil: Director’s Cut, Constantine, Batman Returns, Weird Science, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, Thor, The Shadow, The Crow, Smallville: Absolute Justice, Ruroni Kenshin, Golgo 13: The Kolwoon Assignment

30. Speed Racer – Captures the energy of the cartoon and manga perfectly, and also has appearances by Peter Fernandez (voice of Speed) and Corinne Orr (Trixie). This one got an unfair bum rap from critics for being too fantastic and cartoon-like from what I could tell which is sad because it was fun to experience kid friendly energy mixed with high quality visuals and retro style. The Waichowski siblings proved their talent and dedication to anime fandom here.

29. Batman (1966) – Yes, I’m putting the wacky adventures of The Dynamic Duo starring Adam West and Burt Ward on this list. It’s just too much fun seeing Batman & Robin taking on The Joker (Caesar Romero), The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) who romances Bruce Wayne as Miss Kitka of the Soviet newspapers. If you can’t have a good time laughing at the graphic punch words (BAM!), the Bat-Shark Repellent, or the dolphin who sacrificed itself to save Batman and Robin from a torpedo, you’re just not human.

28. The Mask – From the Dark Horse comic by John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke, we were treated to rubber faced comic actor Jim Carey in one of his better performances as meek Stanley Ipkiss, who finds an ancient mask which drives its wearer to near insanity while giving him incredible powers. Although quite different than the comic (in which Stanley becomes insanely evil and dies), this movie was funny, entertaining and solid as a whole, and as an added benefit introduced the world to the lovely Cameron Diaz as a leading lady.

27. The Rocketeer – Joe Johnston’s first foray into World War 2 era period movies about superheroes featuring a powerful jet pack and Howard Hughes. This proved handy when he made very well-done Captain America: The First Avenger. Good times. R.I.P, Dave Stevens.

26. 300 – After proving his ability to entertain audiences with his remake of Dawn of the Dead, director Zack Snyder showed he was adept at using crazy camera techniques and intense shading filters to create another awesome adaptation of a Frank Miller comic. The battles of King Leonidas and his 300 men against larger-than-life legions in the name of Sparta were visceral, hard hitting and very much in tune with the source material, all the while making actor Gerard Butler a household name for a time. Great execution here led Snyder to his eventual other comic-based projects.

25. Thor: The Dark World – The first film depicted the Norse gods as beings who actually could be realized effectively on screen, thanks greatly to performances by Chris Helmsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Anthony Hopkins (Odin). The story though wasn’t entirely up to standards since most of it took place on Earth and felt much like an ok introduction work The second film though felt more like a Thor story since much of it takes lace on Asgard while incorporating fun scenes with his new human friends. Come to think of it, Sif and The Warriors Three wee also fun to see in action again. Loki pretty mch steals every scenes he’s in and has some amusing moments. All the actors brought their A game to this one again and we got another piece of the puzzle leading to the Infinity War seemingly. I only wish Maliketh The Dark Elf had been written with more substance but it was nice to see Christopher Eccelston again.

24. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army – Guillermo Del Toro’s second outing with Mike Mignola’s demonic looking hero was much more lively than his first. Ron Perlman was still simultaneously forceful and laid-back, but it was Abe Sapien as played by Doug Jones who became something of a scene stealer with his own subplot taking stage. Add a goofy singing sequence and some awesome backgrounds & monsters for the characters to interact and you have a pretty nice piece of filmmaking.

23. The Incredible Hulk – Of all the live incarnations of the character, this one got the most right about him and I’ve never understood all the hate toward it. There were mini-tributes to the 70s TV show many fans grew up watching, and the Hulk’s proportions were correct. Banner didn’t want his alter-ego for a very long time in the comics because of the mess his life became and a good deal of that emotion is retained here. Also, there’s none of that horrid cutaway editing that plagued the Ang Lee version, and he doesn’t fight a puff of smoke at the end in this movie; he actually fights a comic character in The Abomination who could really give him a good scrap. I do wish some time they’d refer to the other villain that clearly came out of this movie…

22. Blade II – Honestly, better than the first one. The creatures Blade has to fight this time out (known as The Reapers) are rather nasty and actually are worse than the vampires. Also, it must be said the ending fight is pure awesomeness, one of the best ever in a comics movie IMHO. More proof that Guillermo Del Toro is a heck of a horror & fantasy filmmaker… and he’s great with mechs (but that’s a different article.)

21. Superman II – Clark and Lois’s relationship deepened as three criminals broke out of the Phantom Zone to give Superman the fight of his life. The general and quality established in the first film remained constant in this sequel. Also, although General Zod isn’t as well developed here as he was in Man of Steel, the character achieves iconic status in the hands of Terrance Stamp. Even with the liberties taken about the Kryptonians’ powers, this was a great installment.

Continuing from the first part, the second installment of the 30 best comic based movies worth talking about!

19. X-Men: First Class – This movie featured excellent performances by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, who’ve reinvented Professor X and Magneto on screen for a new generation. Kevin Bacon is clearly having fun chewing scenes as Sebastian Shaw. The eyecatches of the 60s were also great touches. Yes, it deviates from the idea of Cyclops and Jean Grey and Angel being the first students, but The Beast is present and the film as a whole is generally well-executed. Also, I couldn’t stop rooting for Magneto throughout the whole film. Director Matthew Vaughn proved to be a great successor to Bryan Singer.

18. Spider-Man – Sam Raimi’s innovation of the fast-moving first-person Raimi-cam technique came into play a bit and it was genuinely fun to see the web-slinger on the big screen. The Green Goblin was revamped greatly but Willem Dafoe puts in an insanely good performance as Norman Osborn, with Tobey McGuire goofily playing the nerd turned hero. Also, we get a good foundation of the friendship between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn. (Basically we’re given elements here that we’re totally deprived of in The Amazing Spider-Man 2). So there’s more emotional investment here. The romantic development between Peter and Mary Jane Watson could’ve been handled a bit better, but could’ve been much worse as well. Generally, a good effort all around.

17. X-Men: Days of Future Past – I saw this in the theater and rather enjoyed it with my companion. After picking up and re-watching it on blu ray, I realized I still enjoyed the film as much as I had before. Director Bryan Singer managed to take the best elements from X2 and First Class and craft a decent time travel story here. Yes, I’m quite aware Kitty Pride was supposed to be the one doing this, but since the previous movies had deviated during their adaptations, there was no reason to expect this would be entirely faithful. The 70s were re-created excellently and the Sentinels were incredibly deadly. Also, my heart totally broke upon seeing the fates of several characters from First Class. That’s when I knew this movie had hooked me. Fassbender, McAvoy and Jackman bring their A-game and it was nice to see Lawrence’s Mystique developed and utilized so intricately, while Quicksilver brought much needed comic relief in every scene he stole. The hopeless battles of the future were appropriately dark and dramatic (though it did make me mad that it took this long to see Iceman as he should be from the comics). At the end, we’re left with the prospect of seeing X-Men mainstays Cyclops and Jean Grey possibly being handled correctly as well as a certain future (or would that be past) villain step into the spotlight. Having Singer and some elements of Vaughn’s work combined on the big screen made for a positive experience all around.

16. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Out of all the Phase 2 Marvel movies, this is the single best one and on a given day could be exchanged with the no. 1 film on this list, depending on when you catch me. It has the correct balance of intrigue, action and drama that a Captain America story should have, and it changed the landscape of the Marvel Universe drastically. The fight scenes alone utilized Cap’s strengths perfectly and seem like they could come directly from the comic itself. Also, it’s great to see Steve Rogers developed fully as a character, with touching connections to Agent Carter and Black Widow, who herself actually is utilized better than any of her previous appearances. It was also great to be introduced to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson (The Falcon) and Robert Redford’s Alexander Pierce. We also finally get to see Nick fury in action. The Russo brothers made excellent use of the Winter Soldier storyline while leaving some great clues to future Cap stories. If the rumor of them taking over The Avengers films is indeed accurate, I’d have no problem with this whatsoever.

15. Iron Man - The first part of the great Marvel / Paramount experiment to see if using movies to build a lead in for The Avengers could actually work. Between the efforts of actor Robert Downey Jr. as uber-smart billionaire Tony Stark and the commitment to quality given by director and fan Jon Favreau, the fans and average filmgoers were given hope that a good movie based on a comic book property could actually be done well while remaining largely faithful to its source material. Also, Jeff Bridges managed to give Obadiah Stane appropriate menace here as one of the few villains I actually have enjoyed in the Marvel movies. (Though one day you really should read what Stane did to Stark in the comics. It was pretty bad).

14. Men In Black – This independent comic by Lowell Cunningham from the early 90s wound up being a fun off-beat romp and a huge success for stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. Guided by director Barry Levinson, audiences got a peek into the organization who makes certain aliens can have peaceful (and sometimes famous) coexistence with unsuspecting humanity, and kick butt when necessary. Also, I’m slightly breaking a rule doing this but the third film was also a good installment.

13. Space Battleship Yamato – When I originally wrote the best comic based movies article, I originally left out any movies not created in the U.S. But recently, I got a hold of this movie based on the long running Space Battleship Yamato anime franchise, and I was hooked from the opening battle scenes. For those not familiar, the original series focuses on a WW2 battleship rebuilt with alien technology to go on a deep space quest while fighting off invading forcers. The movie presented here is based on the first two films /stories and incorporates elements of the revamped Battlestar Galactica series. The results are quite entertaining, and even better if you’re familiar with how the anime played out. Also the effects were very nice to look at outside of American sci-fi. Just stop when you get to the Steven Tyler song and you’ll be fine… Oh, wait… there’s extra footage during then. Ok disregard that last bit. Let’s movie on…

12. Sin City: The Hard Goodbye – Robert Rodriguez did a good job adapting Frank Miller’s black & white crime noir comic for the big screen (even leaving the Director’s guild to bring in Miller as a co-director) while retaining the art style that made the comic so striking. In the spirit of similar novels by Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler, the comics themselves were interconnecting stories developing this harsh crime-ridden world that various tough-guy protagonists fight their way through. The theatrical film took three of the better stories and edited them together (with one written just for the movie) but cut out some elements from their original comics for time constraints and story cohesiveness and the results were decent. On the special edition DVD and blu ray releases though, a second DVD was produced which told each story as a stand-alone movie. The best of these was the one based on Miller’s first series (now entitled The Hard Goodbye due to this movie’s release). It focused on a huge brutal guy named Marv who simply doesn’t know any way to live other than the hard way. When he experiences a loss and a frame up, he kills his way to the truth. Rodriguesz’s crazy direction and emphasis on brutality are perfect for this adaptation (especially if you’ve seen From Dusk Til Dawn or Grindhouse: Planet Terror), but what makes this movie memorable is the pitch perfect performance of Mickey Rourke as Marv himself. This truly grounds the crazy shooting style of the movie and gives us an ass-kicking but lovable loser to root for til the very end.

11. Dredd – Maybe the previous Stallone film killed the public’s interest in this movie (or maybe the name or promotion, I don’t know.) but this was a very good adaptation of the Judge Dredd character and his world of Mega-City One. Karl Uban is the (rightfully) faceless embodiment of the law and totally nails this character, as he tends to do in geek movies like Star Trek and Lord of the Rings. Judge Anderson was also handled well as our introductory character and for once, as a female NOT just put in to be a love interest for the lead. Great innovative camera techniques used here and the 3D was very effective to fit the screenplay. It deserved better at the box office so we could get stories like The Cursed Earth Saga or The Dark Judges. Alas….

10. V For Vendetta – Alan Moore’s complex story about a single man’s quest to tear down a fascistic government through both action and ideology was one that didn’t seem like a story meant for film. However, screenwriters Andy and Lana Waichoski managed to interpret Moore’s ideas pretty well for movie length, while keeping the intentions being set forth relatively intact. Much of the time we’re given the story from the perspective of Evey (Natalie Portman) who finds herself transformed by V’s plans, while we see some good direction of V’s actions as narrated and performed by Hugo Weaving. Director James McTeigue deserves some serious kudos for bringing this difficult character to celluloid life.

V For Vendetta

Guardians Of The Galaxy

And bringing it to a close after the first and second parts, the top ten best comic book based movies worth talking about!

10. Blade – This was the first good movie based on a Marvel comic after many dismal, poorly directed and under-funded adaptations in previous decades. This one had a legit martial artist and charismatic badass in Wesley Snipes who could handle the Hong Kong fantasy styles infused into the Blade character’s battle against vampires who didn’t sparkle. This in turn led more production companies to see what could happen when you actually put viable resources and appropriate talents behind a comic based story as the explosion of decent works over the last 15 years like X-Men, Spider-Man, and Iron Man can be traced to this film.

9. X2: X-Men United – I was debating with myself which of the X-films to put into the main list but in the end, only one movie actually had Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Iceman, Colossus and Rogue (with a cameo from The Beast no less) all actually get to do something. Bryan Singer’s second entry into the Marvel mutantverse took what came before in the previous X-Men film and built up both characters and the ante. The script had a perfect setup utilizing the characters toward an ending no one saw coming, but had long time X-Men fans seriously anticipating the third chapter. There’s Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) trying to regain his memory because of a guy named Stryker (Bryan Cox) who uses a White House attack by the teleporter Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) as a pretext to invade the school of Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and destroy all mutants. Stryker’s plan involves Magneto (Sir Ian McKellen) who wants to prevent this and may or may not have an agenda all his own. There’s also the development of the kids at the school like Colossus who become better over time with their powers and likely will develop into full X Men. It’s great to see Storm (Halle Berry) and Jean Grey (Famke Jansen) kick butt more proactively than in the first film, and Mystique (Rebecca Romjin) was sexy and fun. Overall, there were good uses of powers by original X-Men like Cyclops as well as the emerging students such as Pyro and Iceman, whose rivalry develops big time. In the end though, seeing McKellen, Stewart and Cox give weight to their characters anchors a very solid film so that the action around them becomes more compelling.

8. Guardians of the Galaxy – This was one of the biggest surprises of 2014. It proves that one can take a group of relatively unknown misfits and create something special to join an ever expanding Marvel Universe. Outside of the most hardcore of comic readership, many hadn’t heard of Star Lord, Rocket and the like. They weren’t readily available as cartoons or toys over the many years. So this was a huge gamble that Kevin Feige plotted for Marvel films and it worked wonders with director James Gunn and screenwriter Nicole Perlman pulled off something that no one expected entirely to be as big as it was, while introducing the cosmic aspects of Marvel largely based on writings by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Jim Starlin. Add in a dose of fun nostalgia for soundtrack and some genuinely funny touches and eycatches, as well as lead actor Chris Pratt’s comedic timing (not to mention surprising performances from Dave Bautitsta and Zoe Saldanna) and yeah… very successful starting point for this crew. They are Groot!

7. A History of Violence – Although rather different than its source material, this movie is no less impactful due to hard hitting yet naturalistic style of director David Cronenberg. It begins with Viggo Mortensen being a regular guy named Tom running his diner with his wife Maria Bello. After stopping robbers at his restaurant someone comes along and indicates Tom has always been good at killing. As things become clearer and characters such as Carl (Ed Harris) and later, a crime boss named Richie (William Hurt) start to appear, it becomes clear there’s no easy solution that can result in a happy life afterward. There are violent scenes but they’re shot realistically so that the acts aren’t glorified. Can a man go from one extreme of life to the other successfully? This movie examines the nature of violence and how infectious it can be similarly to Sam Peckinpah’s ‘The Getaway.’ Also the story ends in the correct spot to make one contemplate the future of these characters.

6. Road To Perdition – Director Sam Mendes created excellent tension and action in this dramatic adaptation of Max Allen Collins prohibition-era revenge comic. Done similarly to the manga Lone Wolf & Cub we see an assassin known as “The Angel of Death” Michael O’Sullivan (Tom Hanks) who must get the only kind of justice he can against his crime boss Mr. Rooney (Paul Newman) whose son Connor (Daniel Craig) tries to murder the entire O’Sullivan family because Michael’s son witnessed Connor committing violent act. Michael must protect his only remaining son and fight off whatever loyalty he might’ve had to the elder Rooney and his organization, who hire an oddball hitman (Jude Law) to take out Michael. Excellent performances all around, but this should be no surprise if you’ve seen American Beauty or Skyfall (for which Mendes and Craig teamed up again.)

5. Watchmen: Director’s Cut – Zack Snyder’s other really good comic book to movie effort, though initially the theatrical cut wasn’t quite as good. As a fan of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s deconstruction of super heroes on an alternate Earth set in the 1980s, it was great seeing this movie adapted for the big screen. However for many years since the comic’s release, it was speculated and often concluded the only way to bring this story to any motion medium would be either as a mini-series capturing every single nuance, or…. well, not at all. Many concluded it simply wasn’t a good idea to try. The resulting film (and the double studio lawsuit it had to go through) kept most of the essence of the story intact, with a few changes to make the climax more presentable and the story flow better for the screen. The director’s curt though, added some scenes back in that weren’t in the theatrical cut and upon second viewing, the movie became easier to watch and accept. The small additions made things flow better. Even still, there was already an excellently constructed opening sequence and generally good performances from actors who weren’t entirely A-List. Jackie Earle Hayley for example portrayed perfect creepiness as the sociopathic vigilante Rorshach, and made folks want to see him on screen again long after his teen acting days in the Bad News Bears movies. Jeffrey Dean Morgan showed serious sadism as The Comedian, while Billy Cruddup remained perfectly stoic as the god-like being Doctor Manhattan. Actually, just about everyone performed their characters well here, which made the visual effects and art design that much more effective. If the theatrical version is your only experience, it’s definitely worthwhile to look at the director’s cut with fresher eyes. You might just be surprised.

4. Spider-Man 2 – In Sam Raimi’s second installment about the Wall-Crawler, we see Peter Parker still having a difficult life in New York. He’s great at being Spider-Man but he still has troubles just living a life, staying in school and maintaining a secret identity… about like his life in the comics. Mary Jane is getting tired of Peter always being distracted, while Harry Osborn is obsessed with finding and getting revenge on Spider Man for killing is father. We get introduced to Doctor Octopus (brilliantly played by Alfred Molina) being driven insane by his own metal arms which’ve gotten life of their own. The story amps up the best parts of what made the first one good be, but in doctor octopus we get a better and more focused villain (even though Willem Dafoe made a memorable Green Goblin). Peter proves to be his own worst enemy in this movie, which adds to the conflicts Spidey must eventually overcome, emulating the classic “Spider-Man No More” premise. J.K. Simmons continues to be a scene stealer in this movie much like the first one when emulating J. Jonah Jameson perfectly from the comics. Meanwhile, Tobey McGuire remains excellently semi-dorky, yet self-reliant and increasingly more confident, much like the character is in the comic. Even though the recent Amazing Spider-Man movies had better performances by Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, they still don’t hold up story or direction wise compared to this movie, hence its presence on the main list.

3. Batman: The Dark Knight Trilogy – For some time, filmmakers had tried to emulate the grim elements which became more prevalent in the Batman mythos since Frank Miller’s comic series “The Dark Knight Returns” was published in the mid-80s. However without the focus on other elements such as characterization or story cohesiveness, in addition to deviation from the character to make him blow up a building full of people (that’s a Punisher tactic, not a Batman one), these films only worked up to a point until Christopher Nolan began his trilogy with “Batman Begins,” giving an attention to detail and psychology that had never been written before in a superhero film. Also, the supporting players such as Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), Alfred the butler (Michael Caine), and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) were fleshed out more than ever on film to compliment the struggles of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) becoming a vigilante who remains haunted by the murder of his parents after many years. This resulted in a powerful story when the events of “The Dark Knight” were unleashed on film goers and devastated the characters of this series, including the underrated Harey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). While it definitely had issues, the third installment “The Dark Knight Rises” did serve as a decent resolution to events set forth in “Batman Begins” which is why I’ve placed the trilogy on this list in whole. All the while, Batman’s enemies such as The Joker (Heath Ledger), Bane (Tom Hardy) and Ra’s Al Ghul (Liam Neeson) were largely well-written, excellently portrayed and utilized decently in the storylines, which concluded in an interesting place when all was said and done.

2. Marvel’s The Avengers – The culmination of a grand experiment known as ‘Phase One’ by Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment / Disney. Starting with Iron Man, each individual character was built-up in separate (high quality) movies so they can come together when something overwhelming threatens humanity. The previous films were each pretty good in their own right, but were no guarantee that the assembling of several high profile characters (and their respective actors) would result in one of the best damn collaborations anyone’s ever seen. Writer director Joss Whedon (along with writer Zak Penn) made a definitive statement that comic books can be the inspiration for excellent characterizations and conflict resolutions while giving folks funny dialog to remember at key points throughout. It’s a very big blueprint for Hollywood on how cooperation and listening to comic geek interest can result in profitable fun. People have been reading these characters in comics for decades and they may just have a decent idea on what they want to see on a big screen. Hopefully Age of Ultron and The Infinity War will build positively on this initiative.

1. Superman: The Movie – There are some who say the exploits and ideals of The Last Son of Krypton are outdated because Superman is a noble, honorable character who has tremendous powers, and that it’s impossible to write a compelling story for him either in comics or for the big screen, even though he’s been around for decades and achieved iconic status. Whenever I look at this movie that was the first truly great film focusing on a comic book hero, I see wonderful acting all around from newcomer Christopher Reeve as well as veterans Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman and Glen Ford. I also see a script that places challenges an honorable hero would have to face which could cost him greatly despite his immense powers. In the midst of this, Clark Kent begins a logically progressive romance with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) that gives this movie much more heart and believability than the clusterf**ked screenplay for Man of Steel. The tag line for this movie was ‘you will believe a man can fly.’ It’s not just the effects though but the presence and emotion brought by these actors that makes that tag credible. Someone told me once that I needed to grow up for placing this movie so high and I just couldn’t help but think, ”Dude, I’m writing about comic book movies…”

So yeah, that’s my list of the best ones out there. Applause, love letters, hate mail, criticisms? Send ‘em on. I love all of it.
PS: Thanks to Ally Pelphrey for helping my fried brain this go around.

It’s been 10 years since Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai was re-imagined for modern television audiences as an animated sci-fi drama with some steampunk styling. This is the tale of Samurai 7.

The show was done as an adaptation with a lot of differences from the 1954 film. In this world, people live a simple agrarian lifestyle while warriors became samurai and established great houses to fight for. To increase their strengths, many warriors took on machine bodies (designed similarly to The Sazabi from Gundam: Char’s Counterattack) of various sizes commensurate to rank in order to fight in The Great War. Eventually these battles stopped and warriors turned to their Emperor’s new mandate: pillage farmers’ villages for the rice they’ve harvested, and take their women and children for various pleasures.

The people of Kanna Village decide they’ve had enough bullying and decide to send three people (Kirara the water priestess, her little sister Komachi, and Rikichi the farmer) to recruit samurai in a nearby city. However, being poor farmers, they realize they must find samurai willing to protect them for the only commodity available: their rice.

Their first recruit is a battle weary warrior named Kambe. He’s wise and had won many battles but is tired of fighting, only willing to participate reluctantly. They’re joined by an inexperienced student named Okamoto, the elusive street entertainer Katayama, Heihachi the engineer, the boisterous Kikuchiyo who has placed himself in a machine body, Shichiroji the inn keeper, and finally Kyuzo, the two-sword user who joins only for the chance to duel with Kambe after the village is defended. The heroes work hard to preserve justice and honor at any cost, which is the most essential theme of Kurosawa’s story line.

Veteran anime director Toshifumi Takizawa retains that theme throughout this adaptation which is why it’s a largely successful work. Though the warriors bicker and fight at times, they’ll do everything they can to restore some semblance of normalcy to the villagers and make them tougher in the process. If as a viewer, you’re already a fan of the original film (or its American counterpart, The Magnificent Seven), the pacing might be a bit of a problem as recruitment takes considerably longer and there’s a desire to speed things along at times. However after that, the story finds a nice groove. The animation was a bit haphazard as it’s rather clear two teams of animators were at work. Some episodes were a bit flat during the fighting scenes while others had amazing depth and detail in their swordplay. The sparse CG scenes worked well with the hand drawn ones and didn’t overwhelm the show, thankfully.

After 10 years, the animation techniques still hold up. I still like watching the great mega battle scene at the beginning of the series and believe it’s a great high point. Funimation had some interestingly designed box sets styled after book bindings for a while. The English voice acting was pretty solid from all actors involved, such as Sean Michael Teague, R Bruce Elliot, Greg Ayers, Chris Sabat, and Colleen Clinkenbeard, among many others for the ensemble. Though an unorthodox re-telling of the Kurosawa classic, Samurai 7 remains one of the better offerings of the 2000s, and one I like to recommend for fellow action and drama fans. Some cosplay groups pop up from time to time at conventions so it’s nice to see the show has remained in fans’ minds over the years.

The Hobbit trilogy comes to its epic conclusion in The Battle of Five Armies and may be the last look into the world of JRR Tolkien film wise until more rights to his works can be acquired. If this is indeed the case for the foreseeable future, director Peter Jackson has made the end to this journey a memorable one.

Taking up immediately where The Desolation of Smaug left off, we see the last film’s title dragon (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) make good on his promise of death to the village near his mountain hideout. The archer called Bard (Luke Evans) breaks out of the prison he’s in to save his children and the rest of the villagers. Meanwhile, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freman) and the company of dwarves led by their king Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) can only look on from afar, before Thorin goes back into the mountain to find the arcstone he desperately covets… along with all the gold therein.

Meanwhile, rogue elves Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Thauriel (Evengeline Lily) go to investigate the activities of the orcs, much to the chagrin of their king Thranduil (Lee Pace). Elsewhere, Gandalf the Grey (Sir Ian McKellen) is being tortured by Sauron’s forces but he has friends who ensure this doesn’t last long. Eventually though plans come together from many sides as various forces decide they must have the gold Thorin owns now and war preparations begin.

Man, this is one wild movie, filled with crazy fight sequences, wizard battles, romance, and angst. LOTS of angst!!!! But there is a heart that holds this together with everything going on. The focus shifts between the characters quite a bit with many events here building up to the eventual happenings of The Lord of the Rings. With so much crammed in to wrap up the previous two films, there are times when this feels like this is less of Bilbo’s story than a flick entitled The Hobbit should be. There are times though when we can see Bilbo attempting to guide events when Thorin becomes…. what he becomes and they’re quite endearing and amusing to see as Bilbo works to save as many lives where he can.

The only I thing I have with this ending is that it feels like there’s so much that at times it gets to be a little too easy to become desensitized to all the action at times. Jackson does everything he can to wrap up all the various threads from the previous films and he does it rather decisively (with a couple of loose aspects I suspect will be addressed on the eventual extended editions.) This is likely more due to the fact this is the sixth (and possibly final) visit to the Tolkien world more than anything. The movie itself is of decent quality with the large armies battling it out all over the screens.

I have heard folks asking if this film is a better endcap than Return of the King was for Lord of the Rings. In retrospect, the final moments of this film are paced more definitively than the series of false endings Return had. Other than that though, they’re about equal in my humble view. I know of the complaints about The Hobbit being extended to encompass more events than the original novel or even the classic Rankin/ Bass mini-movie. Still, The Battle of the Five Armies was an entirely satisfying conclusion to the story and it makes me want to go and read the novels and educate myself more on Tolkien’s writings. Thank you, Peter Jackson, for making me a willing newcomer to this world.

Grade: A-

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What They Say:
Explore the far reaches of the galaxy in this undeniably hip series that inspired a generation – and redefined anime as an indisputable art form.

The Bebop crew is just trying to make a buck. This motley lot of intergalactic loners teams up to track down fugitives and turn them in for cold hard cash. Spike is a hero whose cool façade hides a dark and deadly past. The pilot Jet is a bruiser of a brute who can’t wait to collect the next bounty. Faye Valentine is a femme fatale prone to breaking hearts and separating fools from their money. Along for the ride are the brilliant, but weird, hacker Ed and a super-genius Welsh Corgi named Ein. On their own, any one of them is likely to get lost in the sprawl of space, but together, they’re they most entertaining gang of bounty hunters in the year 2071.

The Review:
Audio:
The audio is encoded in Japanese True HD 5.1 and English True HD 5.1 on the Blu Ray discs and Dolby 5.1 English and Japanese for the DVDs. Both sets of tracks sounded ok through the TV and didn’t really show any issues.

Video:
The video has been altered from previous American releases to be a bit brighter than before and details show through better. The show looks fantastic in 1080p HD and holds up very well visually. There were no distortions or pixelations of any kind.

Packaging:
This is a side opening clamshell box with each of the characters in a different colored insert on the front and a removable product description sheet on the back that can fit inside the box. The back and spine areas show various line colored drawings of the Bebop crew. Inside is a plastic blu ray case designed to hold all 9 discs (5 DVD and 4 blu ray). There are also two art books on heavy paper, one in black and white and one in color with many drawings used on posters and insert and promo sheets. The cover to the plastic case is reversible. The front of it is similar to the outside box and the reverse is similar to the artwork found on the Cowboy Bebop Remix set Bandai Ent. released a few years back.

Menu:
The menus are an odd sight as the name Cowboy Bebop is listed vertically and repeatedly throughout the screen and animated to bounce / be highlighted in response to various music cues similar to a jukebox sampling various pieces from the soundtrack. A small and colored section in the middle contains text choices highlighted by a black overlay which can make it a little difficult to read at times. There’s a low beep that accompanies each movement of the highlighter.

Extras:
The selection of extras here are really quite nice. Some are carryovers from previous releases but others are pretty damned fascinating. In addition to various music videos, American and Japanese versions of openings and closing sequences as well as audio commentary of key episodes, there’s the following:

Session 0 – This is a digest of episodes 4-6, interviews with cast and crew and a music video… essentially an introduction of the tone of the show.

There’s an interview with Cartoon Network producer Sean Akins about the show’s impact on Japanese animation, reaching a new adult audience and how it was able to be broadcast in America for so many years.

Voice actress Wendee Lee talks about evolution of voice acting and use of SMPTE vs the Protools program to synch dialogue, as well as how popular the field has gotten. “No such thing as being just a voice actor; you have to be a actor.” She also gives thoughts on portraying Faye Valentine. “Many layers that make up her complexity.” This was produced by Jerry Chu for the Bandai releases.

Memo From The Bebop: Dub Sessions Remembered – This is a lengthy and very informative documentary worth watching where the dub cast gives deep examinations of who the characters are and reflect on their pasts. Some pretty fascinating insights come to light here. For example, vocal director
Mary Elizabeth Mcglynn (Julia) was given her first break here because the regular director for ZRO Limit was too busy working on Ghost In The Shell, and actor Steve Blum hadn’t really worked as a lead character before taking the role of Spike Spiegel. We also get behind the scenes happenings from actors Beau Billingsley (Jet), Wendee Lee (Faye), Ed (Melissa Fahn), and Skip Stellrecht (Vicious).

Dinner aboard the Bebop – Fifteen years after recording their dub project, the cast has dinner together and discusses the effects of Bebop on pop culture and times gone by. Different dynamic and energy here from the previous film seeing these folks talk to each other as opposed to being interviewed. The actors talk about their careers since and how much they realize they have in common and conclude with a live table read of “Toys In The Attic” that was arranged in part by Stephanie Sheh of Sailor Moon fame. Both docs were put together by ADR director Justin Cook and the results are pretty good.

Ein’s Summer vacation –Short storyboarded piece set to music about Ein kicking back and chilling out on cruise and islands. It’s endearing.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Wow… 15 years. How time has gone by.

Cowboy Bebop made its debut that many years back on Japanese TV and made an impact both on their airwaves and on the underground American anime scene before being licensed for distribution by Bandai Entertainment. So many people were getting caught up trading tapes of the show that it got a good following at anime conventions in video rooms and costume contests, sometimes compared to contemporaries Outlaw Star and Trigun. Eventually, it made its way to Cartoon Network’s new nighttime arm Adult Swim which would broadcast shows too mature for their Toonami section at the time, often devoted to other anime such as Gundam Wing and Dragon Ball Z.

Bebop’s unique style made it a good show for people who weren’t active anime collectors per se, but did want something different than the norm served on American TV. There’s a tremendous mix of advanced animation techniques (for its time) drama, humor, influx of American pop culture and music in a sci-fi setting. In looking at all these elements gathered as a single series, it really is difficult to dispute the show as a work like no other.

Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (Kids on the Slope, Space Dandy), the introductory episode sets the stage as we meet galactic bounty hunters Spike Spiegel and Jet Black, one a former criminal and the other an ex-cop. After a rather lonely dinner, they set out after a criminal dealing a drug that gives its user amazing awareness and reflexes, as we see demonstrated from first person perspective during a short but hellified gun fight. The screenplay here by Keiko Nobumoto (Samurai Champloo, Tokyo Godfathers) strikes the perfect balance between drama, action, and a lighthearted tone thanks in part to the somber jazz and 20s swing style background music mix among many other styles composed by Yoko Kanno (Macross Plus, Terror In Resonance).

The rest of the series pretty much maintains this balance as new characters are introduced such as the wily Faye Valentine, a capable bounty hunter in her own right who’s trying to solve certain mysteries about her past while developing an interesting rapport with Spike. We also get to meet adorable Ein, a “data dog” with human level intelligence who can’t speak but understands everything people say. About 10 episodes in, we get our final and youngest crew member Ed (who has a really long name here). She is an incredibly flighty and talented computer hacker who more or less blackmails the Bebop crew into bringing her aboard. It’s often been rumored this character was created to emulate the personality Yoko Kanno herself, after she first met with series creators.

There’s several fun adventures that don’t need much emotional investment involving colorful side characters and stories such as an actual horse-riding cowboy bounty hunter, a native American who has insights on the crew’s fates, an indestructible gun-toting fat man who goes nuts at an amusement park, Spike trying to find the right VCR for an obsolete cassette, and a mysterious critter who makes the crew sick at one point, among other things. As a black man born in the 70s, my personal favorite focused on Ed & Ein going on their own hunt and running into two characters clearly based on blaxploitation heroes Shaft and Coffy during a time when everyone was getting high (including the dog.) Seeing classic film themes brought to life in expertly handled animation sealed this episode for me as an instant classic and honestly made me like Ed & Ein the most. (The only thing that could’ve improved it is if they’d gotten Richard Roundtree and Pam Grier to voice their respective cameo characters.) Elements of accessibility, eccentricity and nostalgia are probably why Cowboy Bebop has maintained a prominent position in Adult Swim’s programming all these years.

Although each of the characters gets to shine a bit either in team-ups or individual based episodes, there’s one overreaching arc that bridges key episodes together: Spike’s past with the criminal organization Red Dragon and a recurring rivalry with one of its leaders: Vicious. Each wants to kill the other as they were practically brothers in this group and both had affections for a woman named Julia. Much of this association is told through flashbacks and to be honest, if there’s one flaw in the series, it’s that there’s not enough time spent fleshing out this association. Only five episodes out of the twenty-six really delve into this and it probably could’ve used one or two more with a little on Julia herself.

When I see Vicious, he comes across as a white-haired evil stoic version of Captain Harlock (shoulder-bird and all)…. and then it occurs to me that Spike resembles the care-free aspects of Lupin III and maybe Julia is a cross between Fujiko Mine and Maya. (the blonde-haired loves of both characters). As this show is influenced by many other icons of anime and sci fi, it wouldn’t surprise me if character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto (Gundam 0083, Sword of the Stranger) had done this intentionally. In any case though, despite the deficiencies, Watanabe’s dramatic emulations of Hollywood and Asian film noir work best during these episodes right up until the series finale ‘The Real Folk Blues’ where we see one of the best conclusions in modern anime. Very few works like Golgo 13 or Wicked City capture the soulful action aspects of film noir effectively, but Watanabe did so handily and was able to use the best animation techniques at the time to improve that emulation.

Due to its exposure on TV and the convention scene, Cowboy Bebop has been a fixture for anime fans and casual viewers a very long time now. The jazz and blues variations still take me through all the times of watching this on TV, at anime clubs and even a local Atlanta rental store / hangout called Neo HK. Bandai Entertainment and ZRO Limit Productions did a great job on the series’ American distribution on VHS and DVD. We’ve now moved to the era of blu-ray and streaming, with distribution now in the hands of Funimation. I have to say in looking over the video and amount of extra materials that have been made available, Funimation has done a really good job on this set and others commemorating the fandom.

In Summary:
There are four versions to own and 2 of them (sold at Amazon and Funimation’s websites, respectively) sold out weeks before they were released, currently getting auctioned for crazy prices like they were the final volumes of Dunbine or Dairugger XV or something. The enduring fandom is a testament to the special work this production team did before moving on to works like Samurai Champloo and Space Dandy, and it makes this one of the best anime releases of 2014.

Content Grade: A+
Audio Grade: A-
Video Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A+
Menu Grade: A-
Extras Grade: A+

Released By: Funimation Entertainment
Release Date: December 16th, 2014
MSRP: $99.98
Running Time: 877 minutes (650 minutes content + 227 minutes of extras)
Video Encoding: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Review Equipment: Panasonic 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation 3