Anime Review No. 99 (From the New World)

‘A Bloody History’

From the New World (2012-13 TV Series)

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Director: Masashi Ishihama

Script: Masashi Sogo

So the core of speculative fiction, of which science fiction rests in, is centered around a rather simple question: What if? Of course, if one takes a look at any story in sci-fi or fantasy it is never simply What if but includes more information certainly, be it Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc. That is part of the appeal, to make us wonder about other worlds and places that reside in the imagination. Today I will discuss From the New World, an amazing anime piece of speculative fiction.

These poor children.....

From the New World, or Shin Sekai Yori, is an anime based on a novel of the same name by Yusuke Kishi released back in 2008. It tells the story of Saki and her friends that reside in a quiet village Kamisu 66 about 1000 years in the future. Oh but that’s not all, for she and her friends (Satoru, Maria, Shun and Mamoru) and in fact the whole village have psychic (PK) powers, of sorts. But that’s the least of their problems, besides dealing with that they also have to deal with enemies both out in the wider world and within their own secluded communal village.

Given the context this shot is very striking

I won’t go any further than that, because I am of the opinion that this is a show that must be seen and experienced first hand. That is the best way to describe SSY, as an experiential story. The speculative question at the core for this story is this: “What if human society as we know it went backwards?’ Part of the show is exploring the why and how of this question and a lot of the implications that stem from that. It is the future as reflected from the distant past and informed by the present. The future presented is so compelling in part due to how very possible it could be, and that is a scary and terrifying fact. It also dwells on the iterative nature of history and make approaches to the conceptual notion of infinity, but doesn’t quite get there due to the inherent limitations of humanity.

Opening Scene of Shin Sekai Yori

The opening scene is in fact one of the most striking and sudden moment in anime history ever. Slowly and surely this future Earth is presented to us and also the deep and dark secrets of humanity of this future. I like the slow burn pacing and the nice use of gradual world building. Small events have big ripples, as things that occur in first few episodes end up being very important down the road. Now there is a reason I am not talking about the characters and that’s aside from really two characters that have a story arc (Saki and Squealer) over of the course of the 25 episodes, the rest of the cast is developed just enough for the story itself but nothing beyond that, which does make them come across as slightly under-developed. But at the end of the day it is all about the experience, which is helped by a great sense of mood and atmosphere, which definitely enhances the experience.

Ohhh...pretty background 

Of course, what doesn’t help this story is the animation production, which is spotty at best and inconsistent at the worst. A-1 Pictures handled the production and they clearly only gave the minimum of budget for the show and it shows painfully at points: off-model moments, obvious CG, sketchy art, etc. This isn’t helped by the fact that A-1 Pictures was working on SAO at around the same time and that show has slightly better production values despite it being not too good. Granted at times, it works well but the show is barely functional given the somewhat low production values. There are also times when it does become visually impressive.

Wow, Saki, u be having some fecked up dreams 

That being said, the soundtrack is quite great, one of the best I have listened to. It is full of ambient sounds and noises which enhances the mood and atmosphere of the piece. Most of it is soft strings and woodwinds mixed with ancient tribal chanting-like music and musical silence. The titular theme is something familiar to me even before I heard of this show. It is the opening bars and initial theme from the Largo (second movement) of Antonin Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony, which subtitle has the same name as the novel. This theme has a special place for me as that symphony was the first one I purchased back in my youth and introduced to other symphonic classical music. It fits the themes, mood and feel of the show to a tee and becomes more poignant with every repetition. On a side-note, the sound design is quite exceptional.

SSY OST1 SSY OST2 From the New World Theme

Now onto the english dub. Now I did watch this initially subbed back in summer of 2013 and the acting in the original Japanese is well done. But then I heard that Sentai Filmworks had picked up the show for release and were giving it a dub, which I was excited about. Christopher Ayres helms this dub, and its my second favorite dub of his that I like right behind the Ef series, if not greater than that dub. He assembles a great main cast consisting of Emily Neves, Monica Rial, Greg Ayres, Clint Bickham and Blake Shepard. Bickham also wrote the dub script and proves that he is capable of writing both comedic and serious shows, complementing the nice and well-done direction by C. Ayres. The dub is good to great overall in terms of performances, but there are 2 standouts in my mind. First is Emily Neves as Saki, who gives a full sincere performance throughout and does a good job on the narration as well. The other is John Kaiser as Squealer, the other main character of sorts. He is a little known character actor who has popped up here and there in a few ADV and Sentai Filmworks dubs. Here he gives one of the more interesting character acting I have seen in a dub in a while. There are some highlights in the dub that are exceptional, be it the near theatrical duo between Neves and Bickham in one episode or a particular moving monologue by Rial in one of the more heartbreaking episodes in the series. There are some amazing supporting cast performances by David Wald, Carli Mosier, John Swasey, David Matranga, Allison Sumrall, to name a few. In fact the last 8 episodes offer some of the best dub work out here and makes this an exceptional dub.

My reaction face when finishing this up. No joke I just about choked up at the finale

Overall From the New World is an unique, visceral and thought provoking experience of speculative fiction. Its a show that grips you from the first moment and never lets up until the very end. The answer that the story poses to the initial speculative fiction question is an interesting one, that despite all adversity (from within and with-out) and struggles humanity will endure, as we have in the past, as we do now and as we will in the future. As part of my own experience as an anime enthusiast, this is the anime that helped me reignited my interest in more new and recent anime, without it I might not have seen Kill la Kill or Yuki Yuna among others. For that I am eternally grateful.

So remember when I’ve said that Evangelion and Read or Die were the anime that solidify myself as an enthusiast? Well the 100th review is for another anime feature that I saw around that time as well, and that will be Review No. 100, it’ll be really special.

Til next time dear readers

Anime Review No. 96 (Agent Aika)

Agent Aika (1997 OVA, 7 episodes)

Studio Fantasia

Director: Katsuhiko Nishijima

Writers: Katsuhiko Nishijima, Kenichi Kanemaki, Katsumi Terahigashi and Noriyasu Yamauchi

Ok, so Guilty Pleasures Month 2.0 kicks off with an infamous classic of the vaulted halls of ‘90s schlocky anime, Agent Aika. Or as I would like to call it, Crotch Shot the Anime. This brilliant ‘masterpiece’ is from the mind of Katsuhito Nishijima, who is also behind Najica Blitz Tactics, Kirameki Project, Labyrinth of Flames and oddly enough Project A-Ko. Also, the lack of screenshots in this review is due to the fact that no one wants 6-12 pictures of nothing but crotch shots because who really wants that? Yeah that’s what I thought. Also spoilers because I don’t care.

Anyway, Agent Aika takes place in the far future where Earth turned into WaterWorld basically. The world is mostly underwater with small pockets of land here and there. Underwater salvaging is a prime business. Aika is one such salvager, working for some guy named ‘Boss’ and his annoying daughter Rion. She is hot 90s anime babe who is both hot, attractive and can kick ass by using a special underwear that turns her into a dark skin Amazon that can kick more ass. Anyway, Aika and Rion run afoul of a madman villain Dr. Hargen and his legion of miniskirt hottie minions and a plan involving wiping out mankind with a super weapon or something like that.

One of the big problems with Agent Aika is that there is not really much to it, not even enough for a redemptive reading. There are two stories if you can call them that: episodes 1-4 and then episodes 5-7. The first four episodes feel like their own self-contained story while the last 3 episodes feel more like a series of loosely connected one-off stories as some sort of follow up to the main story from the first four. This is seriously just plots constructed by action pieces, some pseudo-science BS and background sets glued together by fanservice and some rather troubling and bizarre content. Like did the incest really have to be here?, for instance. Like Amazing Nurse Nanako, there are a few interesting, even good ideas (a waterlogged future) but the people behind the production aren’t interested in that, but in the fanservice. However, the fanservice in Aika is so pervasive to the point where it becomes dull and tedious. I would have done a drinking game with how many fecking crotch shots the director inserts into every single fecking scene, but I would wound up in a coma. Add to that Nishijima’s tendency to linger on every crotch shot FAR longer than need be, and the show becomes so ludicrous its funny. It is also so bad its good quality in the visual presentation. Plenty of corners cut in the production just so the ‘money shots’ are extremely well-done. The OP, ED and the BG music is so 90s it hurts.

Finally, the English dub is not very good but that’s par for the course when it comes to US Manga Corps dubs for the most part. Angora Deb, who plays Aika, is the only one manages to do a consistent job in the dub and I feel that even in the bad/mediocre stuff she starred in, she does a better job than required which should be commended. However, the rest of the cast is wildly inconsistent-ranging from ok/decent to downright cringingly terrible. At times the dub manages a very OTT style with one scene in episode 3 pretty much is so terribad I couldn't help but laugh at the incompetence on display with this dub.

So yeah not really worth your time, not even for the fanservice. Which makes the second part of this review that more inexplicable…..

Aika R-16 Virgin Mission (2007 OVA, 3 episodes)

Studio Fantasia

Director: Katsuhiko Nishijima

Writer: Kenichi Kanemaki

So yeah, this exists. It is a prequel in ‘celebration’ of the original OVA’s 10th anniversary, because that seems like a good idea. I will give it this, it is a nice look into Aika as a teenage girl and salvager in training. So she apparently joins an Adventure Club run by rich girl Eri Shingai and meets a mysterious quiet cutie Karen with a butterfly on her bosom. Anyway, they go on cruise to a treasure spot for some reason that actually has a (stupid) point. But their advisor (hottie Ms Risako) turns out to be EVIL (what a twist) and has some plot involving Karen. The treasure spot site is a site tied to Karen’s past and then it gets WTF weird, even more WTF weird than the original.  

There are still a lot of crotch shots and fanservice. except its more amusing and hilarious here than in the original OVA. Luckily there is some sort of a story that is going on that actually incorporates the fanservice a bit better. Granted much of the story still is riddled with cliches and contrivances but it is there rather than not as is the case with the original OVA. It also has an awkward habit of reincorporating character elements/details that appear in the original OVA.

The production values look a lot more slick and digital, i’ll give it that. Of course the true mark of quality comes when the ED contains footage of the episode itself, yes really. Granted the whole OVA feels like a sad artifact of the 90s just looks a bit better in the visual department slightly. It is full of the same shortcuts (speed lines, obvious CG, etc) just so the Nishijima-san can focus on the ‘money shots’.

Now the English Dub is slightly better than the CPM dub for the original OVA but that’s not saying much. Its a 2008 Sam Regal-helmed Bang Zoom dub probably made on the cheap considering the quick turnaround between the initial airing of the OVA episodes in Japan and its subsequent Eng dub release and how small the cast is. Main stars include early-career Cristina Vee and Kira ‘Rina-chan’ Buckland among some other regulars of the LA scene at the time. The dub can be best described as competent, decently casted and acted but rather dull and procedural, which can best sum my feelings on modern day LA/California dubs anyway.

There is another prequel, Aika Zero, that came out in 2009 which is a mid-quel of sorts but since its not out officially I won’t talk about it. I imagine Bandai (who re-released the first OVA and then dubbed/released the prequel OVA) and hoped that it would make money so then they could then release the Aika Zero OVA here in the States. But that didn’t happen, and since Bandai is no longer in the game, I highly doubt this will get a Western release.

And what of Nishijima-san? Well he recently worked on an OVA titled Nozoki Ana, which someone on my Twitter feed was watching a few days back. Based on the screenshots it seems he is still up to his usual shtick. I suppose some old dogs can't learn new tricks. Though he has shown up working on another shows, notably as a key animator on an early episode of Kill la Kill, which is a quite interesting tie-back to the era of anime Nishijima-san was a part of.

So yeah this isn’t so much a guilty pleasure, because I don’t feel pleasure from watching it. If I want to watch something with just crotch shots, I’d just watch hentai or porn. I do feel a bit guilty in buying both of these though at a slight discount granted so I didn’t waste much money on this. Is the Aika series one of the worst? No, I have watched far worse anime that actually insult my intelligence. All that the Aika OVAs do is irk my sensibilities but only that as its not that deep or self-aware enough to read any further into it. Then again, that irking/shaking of sensibilities is what anime partly appeals to people I suppose.

Luckily, the other 2 entries this month are actual guilty pleasures and I will have more to talk about with those. Til next time dear readers.

Anime Review No. 93 (Sakura Wars)

“With Fiery Passion!”

Sakura Wars TV (2000)

Director: Ryutaro Nakamura

Writers: Hiroyuki Kawasaki, Kunihiro Okajima, Yoshimi Narita, Katsuhiko Takayama, Kenichi Kanemiki, Gou Tamai, Sachiko Doi, Takao Yoshioka, Tatsuya Suzuki, Ken Abe, Kazuharu Sato, Takao Yoshimoto

Studio: Madhouse

Ok, so now we are at another important title, at least in my development of being an anime fan. Around 2009, I had come across this on the shelf at Best Buy when I was at college in Virginia. This was actually one of the early complete collection sets I gotten, the first one being Evangelion Platinum Edition back around 2006. That show being, as you expect, is Sakura Wars. Please note that I am only really talking about the TV series here. Yes I am aware of the games, manga, OVAs and the movie but my focus will rest with the 25 episode TV series that aired in 2000. So what’s it all about?

Well Sakura Wars (Sakura Taisen in Japanese) is the story of Sakura Shinguji, a country girl who ventures to Tokyo to become part of the Imperial Combat Troupe-Flower Division, a part of the defense force defending the capital from the denizens of evil. Although at first, she is a bit out of her depths when dealing with the other team members, both during and outside of combat and training. Of course, in the process she becomes part of the team both on the battlefield and on the stage. All set with a backdrop of alternative historical 1920s, steampunk-esque Tokyo where advanced mecha technology converges with dark mystical power.

The story of this series rests on the hands of three men: Ohji Hiroi who developed the original manga and acted as creator/producer for the franchise, Satoru Akahori.the head of the writing team (series composition) and finally Kosuke Fujishima who along with Hidenori Matsubara handled the character designs which you tell as the character designs closely resemble those from the contemporaneous Ah My Goddess the Movie. And they managed to succeed in forging a franchise that persists for several years. Sakura Wars is a brilliant meld of Super Sentai, Japanese historical fiction and nice character driven storytelling.

Of course, the series itself is drawn back from being truly great and that is for two BIG reasons. The first reason is that the story takes a very ‘long game’ approach to the storytelling. Which means for one thing it takes time for the show to get really great, like in halfway through I would say. But once it does it becomes easily one of the most interesting and entertaining anime ever. A colleague of mine once told me that he tried watching Sakura Wars but couldn’t get past episode 7 or 8 and I can understand in that leads to my other reason: The cast starts off very unlikeable or very shallowly developed, with a few that come across very stand-offish or straight up loathing. But thanks to the ‘long game approach they do get appropriate development as they are shaped by the events that occur and their interactions with each other and others is really compelling for the last few episodes.

The animation is well, alright and functional. Granted this was done by Madhouse before they were particularly well-known for the quality work that they are known for nowadays. It also falls in that same category of previously reviewed anime like Nadesico and Silent Mobius where the meld of traditional cel animation and digitally painted cel animation/CG. This does make the anime look a bit rough around the edges but by the final few episodes the production look a bit more even. What works great in the show’s favor is the soundtrack, with music done by the legendary Kohei Tanaka. The OP as I have mentioned before is one of the best OPs I have heard-an all time favorite.

Now for the english dub. Oh boy, what an uneven jumble. Of course, this dub is brought by the now long defunct Monster Island Studios, the secondary studio in Austin that ADV ran from 1998 to 2005. This is the same group that dubbed stuff like My Dear Marie (my favorite and only recommendable dub from this group), Eden’s Bowy, Zaion and heck Wedding Peach. What hurts the dub is several things. For one thing, it starts off not really good, sort of directionless with either too much hammy overacting or too little effort put into the vocal performances. Most of the supporting cast sound alright, but the main cast aren’t all that good starting off, no surprise that aside from a few (Larissa Walcott and Samantha Inoue-Harte), this was the one and only project that they were involved with. Worse still most of them employ rather obviously fake accents. Though to be fair, they do grow into the roles by the end, though its too little too late.

So overall Sakura Wars is an example of a rather interesting premise that gets fudged up by production troubles but its still impressive given the effort and work that went into it. I would add that the TV show serves as a good primer for the whole franchise. My opinion of it might have soured against it recently, but the series hold some significance to me regardless.

Speaking of significance, the next series I am reviewing is also another real important show for me…..

Til next time, dear readers

Anime Review No. 92 (Martian Successor Nadesico)

'You Get to Burning!'
Martian Successor Nadesico (1996-97)

Director: Tatsuo Sato

Writers: Hiroyuki Kawasaki, Miho Sakaki, Naruhisa Arakawa, Satoru Akahori, Shou Aikawa, Takeshi Shudo

Studio: Xebec

So, the new year is abound us. The holidays were nice on me, got to see my family along with grandparents for the first time in a few years and it was all nice and calm. Now then onto the first review of 2015, a look at a show that I have been meaning to get to, and that is…. the space opera Martian Successor Nadesico, an adaptation of a manga series by Kia Asamiya, who was also the creator behind Silent Mobius. .

Nadesico is the story of Akito Tenkawa, a young man who while yearning to be a cook, is instead roped into joining the new crew of a new starship the Nadesico. There he is joined by a crew of veritable oddballs, be it sexy helmswoman Minato, the stoic child genius Ruri, the fanboy pilot Gai and the young captain Yukari who might be someone from his blurry past. Together, they journey to Mars to discover some rather unsettling things from humanity’s past, possibly relating to invaders from Jupiters and their Chulips and also to have some hijinks of the slice-of-life and romantic varieties.

One of the things about I like about the show is how transitional, but then again that is part of the times. The Mid-90s sci-fi anime scene was dominated by one giant show: Evangelion which to this day still has an influence stretching to the present day. Nadesico, in many ways, was the next big game-changer for sci-fi anime. Though more for the space opera subgenre whereas Evangelion was a grand turning point in giant robot genres. Of course this show is mostly forgotten, but in many ways I find that Nadesico works a lot better then Evangelion.

Now why’s that? Well, for one thing Nadesico has a better and more likeable cast of characters. Granted, some of them are based on archetypes of the genre (young male pilot, the captain, the helm crew, the child prodigy, etc) but they have enough quirks and eccentricities that ultimately make them charming. And each of the them gets their episodes to focus on them individually and how they worked together as an ensemble. While Akito is a main character of sorts, pretty much all the other major characters get their own character arcs that are for the most part very satisfying. I see Akito as an improved version of Shinji from Eva, in more ways then one. He at least has some sort of spine.

For another thing, the story is much more interesting and yet takes risks to explore new areas in its home genre. It takes place in a future much like Star Trek, where humanity has combined their efforts to explore the stars. Only not so optimistic, with the world controlled by the all-powerful military and corporations that seek nothing more to fuel the engine of war even at the expense of life and peace. At yet our intrepid crew, when a big story twist comes in halfway through the series,  seek out the truth and hope against hope that someday peace and reconciliation. Like Evangelion, though they do some psychological introspection but thankfully it is kept to mostly one episode with a few other scatterings as the series progresses. No, what the show is really about is learning to overcome differences and make it better for the next generation. There is a vehement anti-military, anti-war streak in the ‘shades of grey’ morality and there’s a good reason for that, being head writer Shou Aikawa who would go onto do Neo Ranga and FullMetal Alchemist ‘03 and those share that similar moral trend. But it doesn’t come across as preachy, and that’s by giving the other side fair and equal treatment, something which not many anime accomplish successfully. The sci-fi elements, be it the Nadesico spaceship, the concept of space travel via the means of the Chulips and the effect of time dilation are very well-thought out. And then the movie happened, and well if you want my thoughts on it, see my review on that back in January 2013.

Of course, the story is without its visual presentation. However, like Silent Mobius which I talked about back in October, this show runs into the fact the show came at a rather awkward time.The production does show signs of digital techniques and CG intruding into a mostly solid and well-done hand-drawn cel animation. Fortunately, it isn’t so obvious here as it is in Silent Mobius. In fact, recently RightStuf released the series and movie remastered. I however have the old ADV 3-2 disc sets from back in the day. In part because I feel its best to see it as it was, even it is imperfect. The show director is Tatsuo Sato, who after this show, would go on to have a career mainly helming solid and entertaining or interesting sci-fi series (Stellvia, Lagrange, Bodacious Space Pirates). Also the opening song, You Get to Burning, is freaking awesome and is one of my favorite opening songs of all time. The rest of the music is done by Takayuki Hattori (Slayers and Gundam Origin OVA among others) and it’s amazing and really powerful full-on orchestral music. Its really good stuff.

Now for the english dub. It is solid if a little uneven, much like the show itself. Produced in 2000-01, its a dub of its time, that being the ADV Greenfield era. I say this as the first era of Houston english dubbing, from 1995 to roughly 2001-03 when Matt Greenfield was the main director/writer for ADV dubbing (Amanda Winn Lee and  Tristan MacAvery were also directors/writers as well, heck Steven Foster’s career goes back to this era). Of course, it is also a very transistional dub, featuring veteran 90s ADV talent like Spike Spencer, Tiffany Grant, John Swasey, Rob Mungle, Brett Weaver, Marcy Rae alongside newer talent like Kira Vincent-Davis, Jenny Strader, Jay Hickman (and Monica Rial in a small blink and you’ll miss it part). It takes a part of time to get good, but when it does it gets really great and ultimately makes the show all that more charming and fun.

It's kind of a bummer that this show has been largely forgotten and thrown aside. Despite the fact hasn't really aged all that well, its a very underrated gem from an era that is slowly fading into obscurity. Speaking of obscurity (or not).....

Til next time dear readers

Anime Review No. 88 (Silent Mobius)

Silent Mobius

1998 TV Series

Studio: Radix/Sotsu Eizo/TV Tokyo

Director: Hideki Tonokatsu

Script: Hiroyuki Kawasaki, Katsuhiko Takayama, Kenichi Kanemichi, Mayori Sekijima, Michitaka Kikuchi, Miyuki Yanari and Yoshima Narita

This review made possible by a Christmas gift last year from fellow AR writer and internet content creator Juude (Juude's twitter, His YT Channel)! Thank you dude!

So, yeah ever watched a show or movie from when you were young, only to revisit it years later? Oh I’m sure most of the Internet had done that from one time or another. I have done it before here on this blog as well. Well this time, I am looking at another anime show I watched back on the Anime Unleashed block on the now long defunct TechTV. This block I have mentioned in my reviews of ROD TV and Crest of the Stars before. The show in question this time is about Silent Mobius.

Silent Mobius is based on a manga by Kia Asamiya, well known for Nadesico and Steam Detectives. In 1998, it was picked up for an anime series that ran for 26 episodes, later getting onto American TV some time around 2005-06. Now I am aware there are some movies that were made prior to this but I have yet to see them and as such this review will cover the TV series only. So what’s the series about?

What a blood moon

Well, it is essentially the story of Katsumi Liqeur, a seemingly ordinary young woman living in Tokyo in the far future…..of 2024. It’s a future where some past catastrophe was nearly averted but someone else might be up to reenacting it with the aid of some otherworldly creatures named Lucifer Hawks. Katsumi is dragged into the battle as she is drafted to join the AMP, a special police division consisting of only females trained to deal with the monster menace and prevent the apocalypse. The AMP, led by one Rally Cheyenne, consists of computer expert Lebia, Dark skinned Amazon tomboy Kiddy. kind psychic Yuki and meek miko Nami.

What works in Silent Mobius’s favor in its story and characters. Granted, much of the show is similar to another show from the same era, Bubblegum Crisis 2040: Group of hot babes kicking ass in a futuristic cyberpunk setting against monsters set to destroy humanity. In addition, Silent Mobius examines the human condition and how despite all adversity we shall endure. Katsumi in particular goes through a most interesting arc as she is prompted into the AMP due to inquiry into her heritage and where that leads to is very fascinating. In the course, she does develop a relationship with Roy, a cop who goes from being her trainer to eventually her romantic partner. I have to say that the relationship dynamics in this show between characters are rather mature, ie the sort I would expect between adults for the most part.

Oh don't be so hard on yourself Nami, your focus episode was pretty weird and surreal

But as this is an ensemble piece, the other members of the AMP squad get their own focus episodes and minor storylines in the show. Some of it (like with Nami and Yuki) are rather surreal in nature, whereas the material around Kiddy and Lebia delves into the same thematic territory that Ghost in the Shell and Evangelion explained prior, but within a different context.The antagonists are mainly the Lucifer Hawks, which are basically these otherworldly beings of great power and strength. Of course, halfway through the show some big WHAM revelations pop up that very much shift the dynamic between the AMP and Lucifer Hawks.

These two screencaps were taken within a few seconds for each other-Spot the quality difference?

Such a pity that the visual presentation of the show is an uneven mess. Oh don’t get me wrong, the animation is consistent on a prime basis level. However, Silent Mobius suffers from something that many of its contemporaries suffered from: the digital/hand-drawn hybridization in the animation. What I mean by this is in the late 90s and early 00s anime studios would experiment with digital paint on cel animation and other digital techniques, CG included. Professor Otaku in his latest video on Queen Emeraldas (Prof Otaku's latest review) touches on this a bit more, but for Silent Mobius its a special issue. See, on a scene by scene basis, Silent Mobius will flip between hand-drawn cel animation on film and cel animation done digitally. Granted, at first it’s not too obvious but as the episodes progress it becomes rather apparent and ultimately very distracting. And you can tell because of how crisp and clearer the digital work is in comparison to the traditional animation. At times, the show seems like one that was made 5 years in the past and 5 years in the future. Also most of the CGI work especially in the later episodes is on the jarring side when placed in conjunction with the cel work.

Scene from one of last episodes

Silent Mobius OP

In terms of sound, the music for the show was done by Jimmie Haskell, Kenichi Sudo, Suzie Katayama and Takashi Furukawa. Its really good, a nice combination of techno cyberpunk music and somber orchestral pieces. The OP is really great. All of it except for one piece-this really cheesy piece of 90s engrish pop ballad which they use as the Second ED and I can’t help laugh when that track plays, its so corny.

The English dub was done by the good folks of Vancouver, back when they did quite a lot of work in anime dubbing. The dub cast list reads like a who’s who of Canadian anime voice actors (Marcy Goldberg, Kelly Sheridan, Lisa Ann Beley, Paul Dobson, Trevor Devall, etc.) Nicole Oliver does double duty of voicing Katsumi and Lum Cheng, a character that shows up in the second half, though she does a really good job at distinguishing between the two, not an easy task in a dub certainly. Of course, nowadays, she is more well known for voicing Princess Celestia in MLP FiM which is quite funny in retrospective. If I could, I would like to splice her MLP audio onto Silent Mobius clips. The dub is overall decent, with the main cast putting in some good performances but the rest is rather stilted or wooden.

The only scene with mizugi but dw its a team of some Grade A babes

Silent Mobius falls under that category ‘not as great as I remember, but now I can see something else great about that I like about it’. I mean when I watched as a teen I was enthralled by the action and the fact that at the time it was unlike anything I had seen before. Looking at it now as an adult and a more aware/mature viewer and fan, I can see that the show has not aged well, but it has a very compelling cast and story that’s rather mature than I initially gave the show credit prior. It’s a show worth checking out at least, if only as a historical piece of Japanese animation production.

Next time, its the Halloween Special review and an occasion to 'Plunge into the heart of horror'.......

Til' next time, dear readers.

Anime Review No. 87 (Dead Leaves)

‘I kinda hate myself for liking this’

Dead Leaves

2004 OVA

Studio: Production IG, Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi, Script: Takeichi Honda and Imai Toonz

Well then, its time for a blast from the recent past. Yeah only a decade has past since this OVA has come out, but 'recent past' still counts. Also, its the debut as director for Hiroyuki Imaishi. So yes Dead Leaves it is.

Umm yeah it is about a duo of anti-heroes of sorts and their wild adventure in the far off future. They are Pandy, a buxom babe and Retro, a dude with a TV for a head. The movie starts up stranded on a wasteland both with memory loss, and very much in the nude. They team up for a bank robbery which leads to a rather disjointed manic car chase action sequence.They are however caught by the police and sent to a prison on the moon, which is a disfigured crescent in the sky. This in turn leads to the most glorious sex scene ever in anime outside of a hentai though our duo escape along with some other prisoners, leading to more shenanigans. I won’t spoil any further as this has to be seen to be believed.

Dead Leaves is a weird and surreal mess. me trying to recount the plot much less the story is hard to do even after watching it half a dozen times over the course of many years like I have. I was constantly screaming WTF and laughing my butt off often at the same time.

In many ways, Dead Leaves is a perfect display of Imaishi style even for a debut feature. Be it the fast kinetic direction and pacing or elaborate storyboarding. But this stuff is at the expense of sense or logic, its animated insanity. Of course this is looking at it as a standalone work, isolated from a historical perspective. Looking at it from a historical career sense, Dead Leaves becomes a step in the evolution of one animator’s style over time.

Imaishi started out as an animator on Evangelion back in 1995. He continued with work on other Gainax series in late 90s/early 00s (notably episode 19 of Kare Kano, FLCL episode 5, and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi episodes 3 and 12). Then he did this as his first outing as a director and it certainly feels an effort from a first timer, a good effort if a little uneven in parts and places. After that, he directed Gurren Lagann and later Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. In fact, PSG feels like a more refined version of Dead Leaves, which both in turn are lovely tributes to the schlocky era of bloody violent and vulgar OVAs from the late 80s/early 90s. Heck Kill la Kill, his most current TV show and 2nd collaboration with Kazuki Nakashima, this OVA gets a nice mention (by that I mean ‘spot or you’ll miss it’) in the very first episode of that series.

Also the release history of this OVA is rather interesting. The original Japanese release dates to January 2004. It got a release here in the States on DVD and UMD (remember those? yeah me neither) within the next year by Manga Entertainment. It also got a TV broadcast on Sci-Fi Channel Ani-Monday block in Jan 2008 which is probably one of the early times that I watched it. The dub was done by Gaijin Productions, the ADR company Amanda Winn Lee and her husband formed after leaving ADV and moving from Texas to LA. They have done only 4 dubs: this, the Read or Die OVA (arguably the best out of the bunch in my humble opinion), and Evangelion Rebirth and End of Eva movies. Granted Amanda Winn Lee is still somewhat in the voice acting business, recently showing last year in the Persona 4 The Animation dub. The dub is OK and rather apt for such a cartoony and insane short movie, in a way harking back to the early ADV Films catalog of dubs that the Amanda Winn Lee was very much involved in. Although the only actors notable here are Amanda Winn Lee and her husband Jason C Lee playing the main duo but that’s about it.

I’ll end this review by saying yeah Dead Leaves is a wild crazy but fun movie. Lucky for you all, Manga Entertainment has the whole thing up on Youtube so you can see and watch it for yourself and decide on your own.

Next time, well its time for an actual blast from my past.....

Later, my dear readers.