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Column by Scott Green
Preview Voltron
Based on Media Blasters/Anime Works
Episode 1
Voltron: Collection One - Blue Lion to be released September 26th
A couple of decades have passed, and the whole cartoon as toy marketing ploy is old hat. Is it quaint to remember only convincing our parents to get us 2 or 3 of the five lions that combined to form the robot warrior Voltron. If you had the opportunity to live near someone who was able to score the complete set with all the missile from China-Town, jealousy knew no bounds.
Now, it’s weirdly economical as these delayed fulfillment missions go. Unlike Star Wars fans or the Ranger fans that came afterward, the childhood wishes can be purchased with a complete, die-cast set of the one release that mattered, the 5-lion Voltron about half the price of a video game style. There's isn't even much of hunt involved in finding the re-issue.
Even through Voltron is kindof garish and kindof straight, it is evident why we loved Voltron as children of the 80's. Optimus Prime may have been our chosen authority figure and he-man our surrogate, but Voltron was our totem. The only thing better than robots were fierce animals that turned into robots. Therefore, Voltron was the a greatest thing until the advent of the Dinobots. Power, camaraderie, unity, a "blazing sword", what's not to love about Voltron.
That "blazing sword" was an interesting aspect. Every episode, Voltron would exhaust his alternatives in his attempts his enemy. Then he would unveil the blazing sword, and that would dispatch the foe. We all brought thought we were smart questioning the rational of using all those other missiles and blasts if the blazing swords was going to do the trick every time. Here's a theory, for people of a certain age set, the "blazing sword" question was the original of geek discussion.
Media Blasters/Anime Works' collection of Voltron looks very promising. Why the initial collections will only feature the dub/English adapted version (content difference), the original Go-Lion series is planned for a later release. A 5.1 audio mix is a bit of a out of place with something as old as Voltron, though audio-philes might appreciate it. The re-mastered video certainly looks crisp, better than some contemporary animation released.
Judging Voltron by its first episode might not be a good idea. Following the series' televised run in the 80's the loop was memorably a jarring experience. Not only does the opening precede the hero's acquisition of the titular robot, but the formula is turned upside down and inside out. Swarms of demonic alien infantry over-run Earth. Bombers obliterate the population centers on a global scale. "Good thing everyone made it safely underground." Ah? ok? If you say so. As the planet is left a smoldering ruin, the space traveling heroes are then captured, put on board a slave ship and packed off to the pits where scarred aliens are slaughter by the "blue robeast" for the amusement Victorian clad demon-aliens, their orb and scepter sporting king and his court witch. Fortunately, thanks to the ability to ungracefully leap 30+ and some commando maneuvering, the heroes are able to escape, and by the end of episode make it to the Castle of Light, potential home of Voltron. Aside from mixing infernal and late 70's/early 80 sci-fi anime imagery with that of the Holocaust, Victorian England and classic Rome, the giant robot is only seen in mythical referrals and the heroes largely at the mercy of their foes.
Applying some long distant recollection, the scenes of blanket destruction, the heroes being captured, tattooed and almost slaughtered and the back-story in which include an angelic form separates Voltron into its component lions all seem a bit out of place to the series as a whole. These are elements are intriguing for a late gen-x-er revisiting the work, but were a bit perplexing for a child. The question is, how much of the weirdness is representative. Voltron wasn't one of real crazies of the era, especially that it wasn't one of the Go Nagai works Tranzor/Mazinger, Grendizer or the something sort of directly on Nagai's works, like Gaiking. We thought of these series as cheap Voltron nock-offs as children, even if they pre=dated Voltron. Viewing them now, a Mazinger show looks rough but inspired. You could have a field day apply Freudian interpretation to Mazinger.
Again, relying on recollection, much of the alien imagery gets carried forward. The horn horns, weapons arrays and bizarre accoutrements of the alien spacecrafts aren't something you get in sci-fi these days. Growing up with this sort-of of mythic design, seeing again is a welcome experience. But, this doesn't answer hanging over the Voltron release. Ever Voltron fan needs one collection for the sake of nostalgia and documenting the passions of our youth. But, is a second collection needed? Is it entertaining enough for those of use who are no longer in elementary school? One episode is an inclusive sampling.
Preview:
Ode To Kirihito
by Osamu Tezuka
based on preview of chapters 2 and 3
Vertical's release of the 828 collection will be released on October 24, 2006 for $24.98
The majority of manga is conceived as ephemera, despite its economic life cycle in collected formats, and that the collected form is the key vehicle for its North American release. The prolific Osamu Tezuka created many brilliant works that call to be preserved in reprints, but even still, it's a subset of his work that stands out as what could be called "bookshelf manga". Manga that isn't just enjoyable, edifying or skillfully produced, but testaments to the potential of the medium and conceived to be timeless. Manga that you can honestly say you'd be glad to own twenty years down the line.
Though Tezuka is best known for creating beloved children's characters Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, but he also produced works intended to engage older audiences, such as his exploration of the patterns of human existence in Phoenix or the life of Buddha. The characteristic qualities of his work were maintained through this spectrum. His young audience work still took the world seriously. Characters like Astro Boy received unmasked exposure to the sorrows of the world, from his origin in which his creator abandons him for being a robot rather than a human to the experiences of his stories, such as when he time slipped into a Vietnamese village during the war.
Conversely, his older audience work utilized his classic cartoon inspired illustration techniques. There are cases where this was mismanaged. In early Phoenix, critically serious moments were habitually broken by insertion of out of context humor gags. Later works reigned in this tendency, and fully revealed the effectiveness of utilizing an expressionist style in topics of paramount seriousness despite that style's specifically childish connotations . "Adolf" was more chilling because it portrayed the dictator as a Daffy Duck figure, a saliva spewing ranter with flailing limbs. Tezuka was able to convey how his manic dementia was infectious, transformed by believers into policy, and disseminated culturally. The cartoonishness became a tool for conveying complex ideas.
Ode to Kirihito is an adult parable. Like "Adolf", Tezuka doesn't seek to balance the tone with humor. The early chapters send a young doctor into a physically and socially isolated village. During his strange, almost Wickerman-esque stay, he is infected by Monmow disease, a mysterious illness that curses its host with a bestial visage and appetite. This disease, an affliction of outsiders, is symbolic of a current in Tezuka's works and the works' humanist outlook.
Projecting the trajectory of Ode to Kirihito from two chapters, the work appears to focus on patterns of the human propensity to ostracize people who are positioned as "others. In addition to the rural village in which protagonist is infected, the connection is drawn between the disease and race, or perhaps racism. A medical conference in South Africa discusses the disease and well to do non-natives ask whether the disease 'only effects negros'.
This is a subject which Tezuka's body of work is well equipped to address. A wider theme in the huge corpus of this manga is the implicit acknowledgment of a gap between people and how it leads to dehumanization, exploitation, torment. The crimes and pains of his characters have always been more real because despite the failings of these characters, even his real and imagined dictators, Tezuka expresses a compassion for them. One of his frequently used templates this the Saruta character, a middle aged man with some occupational proficiency marked by an ogre-ish appearance: a large frame, pot-marked skin, a bulbous nose; and further haunted by his past sins. The fulcrum of characters like Saruta is escaping the cycle of crimes committed by him and against him.
These opening chapters don't answer if and how Ode to Kirihito will address bridging the gap between the two sides of the ostracized divide. That the protagonist is a doctor suggests that medicine might be a component, or an emblematic force in this work.
Though the two chapters were not a complete representation of the work, not even serving as a closed ended block, they are a perfect example of Tezuka's abilities as a illustrator, particularly of mature works.
Osamu Tezuka is one of the great storytellers for whom it can be said that they mastered a medium. The moniker "God of Manga" is not hyperbole when applied to Tezuka, whose work accomplished what the creator authors of literature and directors of cinema did their chosen of media. His elegant and compelling way of capturing character, tone, context and pacing
Tezuka employs an alphabet of character illustration. These are simply formed, even repetative designs that remain always distinctive and which able to convey a message with clarity. Ambiguity comes from the event of the story and direct which the characters are taking. The visual rendered is always precisely demonstrative.
In the backgrounds and scene staging, Tezuka capitalizes on every opportunity to establish the tone of the work. From full establishment illustrations to simple panels, the detail in content enforce context of the rendered moment. There are many panels in which Tezuka displays great technical illustrating every rock and blade of grass in large, natural scene, but a beautifully crafted example of how he establishes the tone features protagonist fever ridden in a village bed. He’s patch work quilt, half illuminated by a translucent screen with its frame casting shadows. The next panels shows the silhouettes on a city spaces. The scene captures the rustic the setting, the separation of the character and the aura of confused, possibly malicious distrusts.
Tezuka isn’t just a master comic creator, but one whose greatness doesn’t require a familiarity with or disposition towards the medium to appreciate. The progression of panels and pages is simply easy to read.
His work doesn't have to be studied to pick out narrative moment. Some manga creators ranging from Rumiko Takahashi to Junji Ito specialize in a halt, causing the reader to dead stop on a panel. Even in shocking moments, Tezuka keeps the progression going. In Ode To Kirihito , he works in tightly focused shots. Exterior spaces are given wide shots, but when something visual stuns the protagonist and by extension the read, it is handled with small, intensely focused panels. The result is that an impression is left without bogging the reader down in the mechanics of the comic.
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Format: Anime
Teknoman
Collection 2
Released by Media Blasters/Anime Works
Again, the second collection of the English-dub only localization of Tekkaman Blade proves to be a compelling alloy of a super-hero's duality of power and humanity and an anime escalating sci-fi epic's scale, storytelling and edge. Media Blasters' collection offers episodes count in favor of extras. The second 15 episode block is the quarter of the series that is definitive in establishing its war between the red and white armored Teknoman along with his allies in the Space Knights against the invading Venomoid spidercrabs as a conflict built on a foundation that is dark and personal.
The template for a series like Teknoman would have episodes that were built around the appearance of the armor, along with a battle in which a specific threat posed by the alien invaders is dealt with. Teknoman forgoes that brand of formulaic predictability by making its character conflicts the chief appeal. Teknoman javalin-ing bugs has to compete with political intriguing between ostensible allies, rapid paced weapons research and development, and dramatic character arcs. Episodes in which the Teknoman armor appears briefly or not at all often strike as hard as the combat heavy initiatives. An episode that focus on the past and activities of a secondary character balances seedy darkness with humanity.
The series is tightly continuous, with each episode feeding into the next. The result is that each action is given gravity, knowing that it will effect what follows it. Pattern-based episodes in which the progression is more in geography moved through than in advancing the story are by far the exception to the norm.
This set of episodes explicitly lays out the foundation of character and the nature of the conflict. Around episode 24, it appears that the significant history had been revealed, along with the specific danger of the invasion and the host of villains.
Rather than converse and on rely on revelations about the history involved or burn out after the reveal, the series is even more intriguing with the history and stakes known. The conflict is more personal. The scope is more direct.
From a sci-fi spectacle standpoint Teknoman escalates the quality of what it delivers. Concepts and visuals, like an alien occupied, man-made ring around the planet, biological bombardments through the atmosphere, techno-organic ships and floral infestations, are what anime can work well with, and what Teknoman does thrive on.
Unlike heros in many of the sub-genre works that Technoman borrows from, the protagonist exists more as a distinct character than a frame of reference or point of identification. He's not a sterling superman, but his problems don't track along common angst trails either. The unhappy family operating here is really unhappy in its own way. If his troubles could be mapped to real, label-able problems, it would be a combination of the burden of responsibility/expectations mixed with middle child syndrome. As such, it's murky enough that few are going to see themselves in the character. He was the more dominant, more loved and respected twin, who, along with his twin, his older brother, young sister, and father, was part of a deep space crew exploring the outer planets of the solar system. Consequently, the appeal is more in the immediate story than in a deeper emotional or intellectual engagement. By default, you root for the person whose struggle you're witnessing, especially is their struggle forwards an interest in which your involved (fate of the human race is certain a interest in which every viewer is going to involved). But, the more actively the hero is dissected, and the more his impulsive rush to danger is separated from his emotional paralysis, the less convincing he becomes. Trying to figure out how the issues maps to real problems only serves to make the character alien. The net effect is... enjoy the series without thinking about it, constructing engaging situations clearly took precedence over deeper commentary.
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Format: MangaPeach Girl: Sae's Story
Volume 1
By Miwa Ueda
Released by TOKYOPOP
Emotional manipulation isn't so much a bad thing when it comes to shoujo manga, where the intension of the genre is to take the reader along a orchestrated path of empathizing with a character, generally a relationship entangled teenage girl. The original Peach Girl was an overture of frustration, features an athletic girl assumed to fit into a certain, derided subculture (ganguro because of her tan. And for many volumes, there was pleasure to be had blowing off your frustration by watching hers boil. Here was someone given real justifying reasons to get steamed.
The feature that sets the work apart, making it dynamic, new and pleasantly infuriating rather than just engaging was its antagonist. Rather than a foe who declared their adversarial stance, Sae was the piece's Iago, the titular lead Momo's "best friend" playing the part of the conniving weasel. One face was an edged, eagerly offended false sincerity, not afraid to twist a compliment or undercut her friend overtly. The other face schemed, collected secrets and architecting problems. In other words, bad and worse. In this initial go-around, she was a fascinating character to watch. There was a love to hate glee in the bright eyed, devious social wolverine.
Sae's Story, a sequel to the original Peach Girl (and "Change of Heart", 18 volumes in total), sees the characters off to college, except for Sae, who is held back a year due to attendance problems. Trying to find entrance into the college social world, while being an outcast in her daily high school routine, she's now the anti-hero of her own story. Now, it's less about a dagger campaign aimed at a specific target, and more about past personal skeletons, endemic dishonesty and continued bad decisions.
The sequel explores the rational behind the seething grin. There are several traps manga has the capacity to fall into when dealing with villains, most making then angry heroes (ie the shonen former villain path) or giving them a back story and moring on (the Yuu Watase path). Sae's Story has walk between exploring and excusing, and it rises to the callenge, building out a character who isn't just flawed or making bad decisions for the sake of a plot line. It's actively digging into a interesting character with quite the dark side, trying to figure out why she is way she is, and how she can correct her flaws. Trying to parse her motivations in the first series an interesting undercurrent, now that more is revealed about how much is impulse, how much is an attempt to right what she perceives to be the problems of her past, and what exact she's hoping for, the already intriguing character really takes on a life of her own.
One potential trouble spot in the manga is the love interest. Like the original series, it is an overtly physically and emotional affectionate guy. It's a childhood "monkey boy" friend returning after years aboard. Not only does it seem to be setting up an easy out, a cheap path to redemption, it raises the question why she should want to be with him, beyond that he's a decent guy, and that he insists on getting close? A relationship between a sarcastic girl and a sweet nice guy could be interesting, but that doesn't seem to the focus of the work.
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Format: MangaVagabond
Volume 21 by Takehiko Inoue
Released by VIZ Media
After a hiatus Takehiko Inoue's breathtakingly illustrated magnification of the fictionalized life of famed swordsman Miyamoto Musashi has result. The key factor in construction of the work is that Musashi's life is legend. Especially when tellings are based on Eiji Yoshikawa's novel, the landmarks of the journey are known qualities. Following the Battle of Sekigahara, which laid the grounds for the foundation of the shogunate, bestial warrior Shinmen Takezo is reformed by the priest Takuan and becomes Miyomoto Musashi. His life intersects with his downwardly mobile lowlife friend Matahachi, his lover Otsu and his apprentice Jotaro, and at the same time he repeatedly fights Matahachi's vengeful mother, the Yoshioka sword school and Sasaki Kojiro. Finally at Ganryu Island he defeats rival Kojiro, cementing himself at the premiere swordsman of days.
Given that in many cases, the readers would be familiar with the outline, if not the specifics, Inoue took the opportunity to blow up the picture of Musashi's life; to decompress the story and explore the facets, particularly the attitudes and minds of the players. In some cases, he invented new side stories, creating detailed histories where sketches had existed. Before its hiatus the manga had recently completely one of these inventions in the early life of Musashi's naturally gifted rival Kojiro. Some have argued that Kojiro himself is an invention, that without a substantial foe for the historical Musashi to overcome, legend making granted him one whose gifted skill would be a counter-point to Musashi's hard won knowledge. Inoue made it less simple, giving Kojiro a more alien and at the same time, more in-tune perspective on fighting and the world in general.
The volume brings Musashi's fight against the Yoshioka school to a head. From an action perspective, over the course of complete work, the Yoshioka attacks Musashi's with numbers on difficult ground and force him to innovate on the battlefield. As characters, Inoeu seems significantly less involved by them than he was by the story's greater minds. Vagobond uses a world genius of artists, who demonstrate their creations with blood. In the face of rebel geniuses like Musashi and Kojiro, the Yoshioka are hopefully institutional, and at that, not even cutting edge institutional. The school had been inherited by two brothers who live well off their father's well earned reputation. The elder is large and tuned in form. The younger is quick and fiery. Neither has a the depth of mind that Inoue would delve into. Inoue's illustration is singular is capture the detail of the story, the blade of grass, the grain of wood in the builds, the sweat and stubble on faces. Looking in the eyes of the Yoshioka brothers, there is markedly less going on than in the head or Musashi. As a snapshot, Inoue seems to find less inspiration in these characters than he does in an hedonistic ass like Matahachi.
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Format: MangaAir Gear
Volume 1
By Oh!great
Released by Del Rey
Air Gear's Shonen Jump meets Maxim combination of bosomy female bodies and smackdown action in a battle between teams/gangs of roller bladers is regrettably not nearly as much sordid fun as it might have. There is a plot that is not very complex, but complex to a needless degree for the first volume of Shonen work whose appeal isn't in its world creation. Oh!great's skill as illustrator only half lend themselves to the work. His talent as a merchant of illustrated flesh is present, but he hasn't shown that his work lends itself to the style of action chosen for the series.
Oh!Great's career has in part been a progression of providing breasts for ever younger audiences. First it was outright pornographic hentai, then fun martial arts trash in older audience seinen Tenjho Tenge, and most recently in younger audience shonen Air Gear. Of course, the order got a bit scrambled in his works North American localization. Thus, Silky Whip remained pornographic. Tenjho Tenge was carved by CMX into a 13+, and due to generally accepted American standards, Air Gear became a 16+ series. The young target for Air Gear has meant no overt sexual assault so far and the nudity masks the details in the key areas.
Still, the series features a quartet of fleshy sisters. And they shower together. And Oh!great is sure to convey the physicality and volume in the grouping. It's what Oh!great does well and in the form, attire and pose, the characters look more youthful than his previous work, but still sexual. This time around, it's more titillating than outright lusty.
The half of the equation that doesn't quite work is the action. Quickly changing dynamic motion is a difficult effect to capture in comics/manga. A chase scene's velocity is a rare feet in the medium. Akihiro Ito's Geobreeders and Keniichi Sonoda's Gunsmith Cats carried it off. Put this sort of motion on roller-blades, and the problems multiply. Any sort of roller-blade action has to contend with steer logic assault of the activity. Are you more likely to fall over if the punch connects or misses? For the most part, aren't strikes just going to drive the parties in opposite directions? Yukito Kishiro pulled off a cyborg roller-derby in Battle Angel Alita, but that was a testimony to the depth of Kishiro's skill as a manga creator.
Oh!great is far better at single panels than he is at process. He's exception at design, exceptional at poses. When he does motion well, it is conveyed with one panel. His abilities are far better suited to static piece than dynamic, panel to panel storytelling. When a fight has to range over an area, this shortcomings fail him. He's stuck trying to fit to much into single panels. His rapid shutter panels or single big attach moments don't allow for the same give and take that a sequence that varies its perspective shots and points of focus might.
Beyond putting the combatants on roller-blade, Oh!great introduces an unconventional twist to the action by having its hero fight with a pro-wrestling style. It's not amateur wrestling or jujitsu, its drop kicks and hurcinarana's, ect. This adds to the distinctive qualities of the action, but it remains to be seen how it works beyond the manga's introductory stage.
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Format: MangaBattle Angel Alita: Last Order, Volume 7
by Yukito Kishiro
Released by VIZ Media
In the original Battle Angel series Yukito Kishiro created his own mythic epic, but after the work was abbreviated by health problems, his second visit to the world of his resurrected cyborg martial artist has been more of an extended session of genre riffing. Rather the tragedies of the character's evolving life experience, Last Order ran shonen fighting tournament meets giddy wuxia on a interplanetary scale. In the series, Kishiro is able to leverage the form without succumbing to the predictability that would make Last Order just another stock tournament. Yes, the format is built around Alita's team fighting teams of other combatant in a tournament, in which every round gives flashbacks of the opponent’s history as well as a new increment of Alita's own past. And it's offering what that brand of work offers: fights and oddity. Yet, Kishiro's brilliance allows him to make the story his own rather than just another example of a common form.
Kishiro levels a fascinating barrage of ideas, handled with a coherence in satisfying contrast to Shirow's Ghost in the Shell: Man-Machine-Interface. While alita fights her form master, her clones (two cute ones, and one who has taken an unusual, for anime/manga path to resolving their gender identity issues by transferring from a female body to a gritty male body) fight an evil circus cult. And the acts of the circus cult... See "Secret Comics Japan" for the brand of grotesque absurdism that this resembles. Spaced-out Russian Rolette with graphic results, psychic de-fleshing and work.
From a pure action standpoint, Kishiro's work remains stuff. This Yuen Wo Ping material working with the restraints Edgar Rice Burrows had to work with (not too much). He's able to take the spirally, spinning, leaping fights Panzer Kunst fights and capture and expand the combat style of a fighting game to convey motion, ability and impact. That he's adding touches like "uni-directive adsorbent chameleon bombs the size of a booger" on a fighters finger times makes proceeding glisten crystallized geekyness.
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Format: Manga (One-Shot Volume) Yoki Koto KikuReleased by Broccoli Books
Though a darkly capricious send up on some very specific culture elements, Yoki Koto Kiku is pure comedy divorced from required familiarity.
Koge-Donbo is best known as the creator/designer of a host of cutesy, often rococo frilly-atired characters, including Di Gi Charat and spin-off Piyoko, A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, and Pita Ten. While her work has lent itself to offbeat incarnations, Yoki Koto Kiku is an inspired platform for her cherubic loli-goth style. The story is a parody of a specific, well known detective story starring Seishi Yokomizo's Kosuke Kindaichi (manga fans might recognize the name as the ancestor of the Kindaichi Case Files's hero), and the anime/manga references skew very 70's. Still the mystery is only slightly different than a Miss Marple story, and jokes characters and conventions from 30 year old reside with brilliant level of comic disparity that will tickle readers with not knowledge of the specific.
Set in early Showa (1930's) Japan, the fraternal triplet heirs of the Nekogami will loose there inheritance if their brother can return from war to marry the family young maid. So, dark, demure yamato nadesico (ideal Japan woman) Yoki,soul male of the trio, sickly and morbid Koto and bouncy, childish are all flowers and kindness on the surface and literally shooting daggers when their backs are turned.
Koge-Donbo leverage that the design, from the cover through the introduction has a somber cuteness. If Koge-Donbo were to adapt the story straight, it would have the same looks of wide, almost placard like features, adorned by the same period costune with the same magnified curls and ruffles. And then, the outrageously short sighted, unrealistic views espoused by the character aren't immediately distinguishable from cuteness. As the degree of deadpan oscillates more wildly, and the parodies compound, Koge-Donbo is able to maintain the layered joked: the kawii children are really conniving plots; the tradition composure is barely containing the modern manicness.
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Format: AnimeDokkoida!? Box Set
Released by Geneon
Dokkoida!? deftly interjects pop culture parody with a humorous take of modern economics and community . It's a concept that can be explored thoroughly but not worn in a 12 episode anime series. By focusing on the community involved and approaching modern "L" curve economics with a sort of accepting resignation, it is able walk the line between deconstructing and indulging in the sexual extravagance of anime and still seem good natured.
Finacilly struggling student Suzuo is recruited by the greenhaired adolescent girl Tanpopo (dandylion) to demonstrate Toys of the World's sentai-like Dokkoida power armor (a gray Ultraman-like figure with a goofy antenna with a bouncing yellow ball and a diaper looking wide-white hip section). Competing for the government's law enforcement equipment contract is the rival toy company's sexy Neruloid Girl (a metal bikini, with gloves, books/grieves, and a cool cape with boosters) aka alcohol consuming tomboy Asaka.
A battlefield is set up where the two will test their abilities against A-Class criminals Dr. Marronflower: an aged space-pirate mad inventor with a game-pad based chest plate and a passion for risqué relationship-sim video games accompanied by his assistant robot Clicker, Edelweiss, an aristocratic young girl whose blood gives life to clay golems, and Hyacinth a busty dominatrix. For various motive (cost saving, reality TV opportunities), the two heroes and three villains are given residence in the Cosmos House apartment building with the proviso that the participant maintain a secret identity.
While the characters are clearly more meant to be types rather than unique individuals, the humor works, because it recognizes the goofiness and the characters half recognize it. It knows that you know what’s going to happen. Rather than get overly silly trying to throw in unexpected element, raise the volume or get distasteful, it applies genuine emotion. The characters worry about the same financial and social uncertainties that plague everyone. In that their worries about the job market and that their work involves exchanging Viewtiful Joe-like speeches and smacking eachother around beside a riverbank feed off each other, Dokkoida is a ceaselessly amusing anime throughout its brief run.
What Works...
Patlabor 2: The Movie
Released by Bandai Visual
Few anime directors are able to construct movies. The tendency is to take the available tools, namely the animation budget and built scenes without thought to how the narrative glue will hold the work together. This afflicts even the renown directors. Especially with Steamboy as evidence, this is arguablely the case for Katsuhiro Otomo. Mamoru Oshii and Hayao Miyazaki are often grouped together. While this can be said to be over simplistic, their vision, procedure and influences and generational inclinations substantially differ, but they both know how to hold together the narrative of an anime movie.
When Patlabor 2 was released in 1993, Oshii said "A movie would seem to be a large vessel, but in fact it is quite small.. If you try to throw in anything and everything, your main theme will sink to the bottom, out of sight." Oshii strips out plenty to engineer a movie that will carry a complex idea with narrative coherence. The second Patlabor movie explores a concept that is largely detached from the specific characters and technology of the title. While the first Patlabor movie relied on some knowledge of the cast and projected the technology at work into techo-thriller conventions to create the movie's innovative villain, the second sparsely leverages the fact that it is a "Patlabor" movie. The technology is lightly utilized. Significant screen time is only given to a few characters.
Every moment is precise in its application of the creator's agenda . Symbolism and the composure of characters' faces are used to convey information that would be lost in extraneous dialog. Verbally expounding on the history and viewpoints at work give the movie enough dialog as is. There is battle chaos, but it is directed to reveal aspects of the circumstances rather than simply fill a need in the movie for action. The focused distribution of narrative allows to the movie to slow its heart beat, and observe its environs, which are the key manifestation of the ideas being conveyed.
Oshii is able to let the significance of events sink in. There is a sequence in the movie in which the military mobilizes and stations itself within a metropolitan area, effectively occupying the city. It's a slow positioning. Wide angles capture the scale of the machinery and composition of military weapons in an urban context. The view is positioned behind the observers looking out windows into the streets to see the a closer shot of the relationship between the weapons and the people. Then the view turns around, catching the soldiers seeing the civilians and the civilians inquisitively looking at the soldiers. The viewer of the movie has the time to take in the reaction and see the feeling on unreality on the part on the partipicment of the scene and apply their own interpretations to what every aspects means to the themes of the movie.
As opposed to the more metaphysical bend to his work on Ghost in the Shell, Mamuro Oshii's work on his other large sci-fi endeavor, Patlabor took a decidedly more political path. Seeing Tokyo build itself as the economic and construction booms feed into each other through the eyes of a cinema lover and one time student activist, he came on board the creative partnership calling itself Headgear and steered their hard-sci-fi concept along a circuit route in investigating the evolving nature of the Japanese city.
The original seven episode direct to video OVA introduced the distinctive personalities that made up the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Special Vehicle Division 2, Section 2. An initiative to reclaim the land of Tokyo Bay resulted in a consolidation of the new construction robots known as labors being brought into the area. To deal with incidents of labor-related crime the police instituted teams dedicated to fielding patrol-labors aka Patlabors.
Maintaining, transporting, staging, and field-supporting the Patlabor units is an intensive endeavor. The machines need to be transported to their deployment, need constant resupplying of ammunition, and rarely engage without requiring significant maintenance afterwards. This level of procedural detail and specialization lent the title a large cast. But, he focal characters tend to fall into a subset: Nao Izumi, a young woman pilot who views her robot with an affection in which she treats it like a substitute pet and fantasizes it to be an anime-like flying super-robot, Asuma Shinohara, Nao's field support, the son of a labor manufacturer industrialist who rebelled against the family by becoming a public servant and Keiichi Goto, the uni'ts commander, a man with an unphased demeanor and sleepy eyes who non-less has a network of feelers through other police divisions, into politics and into the protest movements.
The OVA depicted a situation where the Patlabor division was needed, but not often. An abundance of dead time surrounded the unpredictable calls to action. There were few cases of labor crime. Few instances of problems caused by the movements protesting the bay expansion projects. Consequently, the series was exploring the sci-fi concepts being offered, but more often, it was parodying genres not typically depicted in anime and studying the characters. The final two episodes, titled the "The Longest Day" further deaccentuate the labors, further relegating them to the non-romantic role of tools, and even put aside the bay expansion project in favor of examining the position of the military in Japanese society.
Oshii reengages this subject in the second Patlabor movie. While Article 9 of Japan's constitution requires that the state remain a pacifist nation, the country participates in the war industry and the nation funds wars. In the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) there is a Japanese armed body. The JDSF has been deployed international in peace keeping missions, including going into Iraq in 2004. The existence of the JDSF, specific engagements, reliance on the United States and funding wars have all been controversial both on the right and the left ends of the political spectrum. Patlabor suggests with this developing and becoming institutionalized at the same as the city was being built up, like political corruption and corporate greed , along with the other intensions, this military indestructible complex ingrained itself into the shape of the city.
Like the first movie, though not to the same dramatic extent, Patlabor 2's antagonist is more a ghost, one of these impression than manifested presence, as if his plan was progressing without the continued involvement of its architect. The conflict opens with an act of terrorism that is a blow against structure of the city, an manipulates an escalating conflict of imposed authority between civilian and military organizations.
Except for this opening act and the conflict's conclusion, the volleys consist more of demonstrations than actual actions. The impetus for the conflict was a peace keeping mission in which lives were lost because a JDSF force was put into the field as a fist and allowed to be slapped away. This irresolute desire to demonstrate ability without the philosophical clarity to acknowledge what that ability means and follow through is mirrored in the methodology of this revolutionary act. This coup, staged with terror acts is driven by anger, but not authoritarian or fundamentalist drive. The architect of the attack displays no concept of an end game in a contradictory search for answers and revolutionary action. It's more revolution as protest rather than revolution as a planned catalyst for change.
The future, which is now our past, depicted in Patlabor is non-utopian or non-dystopian. Like our present, for better or worse, it sprung up without a grand plan. Post World War II, in Japan and America, there was an opportunity to build, and that opportunity was seized upon. The resulting construct was formed without a grand plan. If the second half of the 20th century was the period of America hegemony, and American democracy was exported with the belief that given the opportunity, market forces will shape society into its most effective shape, this is the tinkered with result. It isn't some sort of monument like Reich or traditional empire, but a sort of sedimentary mound. Patlabor chips through the layers of what Tokyo is projected to become and finds associations between how the foundation was layed and what shapes the actions build on those layers may take.
Set in 2003, the Bay reclamation project is complete. The Special Vehicle Division is preparing for a landscape where rather than a concentrated labor presence in Tokyo, the machinery are distributed across Japan as needed. The city itself is no long depicted as a dynamic ecosystem of old buildings and new, but instead it;s a congested, industrial landscape. The younger former SVD have been moved on to other roles within the police or labor development community. The movie belongs to the older characters. Goto still has his network, and Detective Matsui is still willing to be his eyes for peering into the interior of the city (Goto is still either in offices or around the coast), but the architect is now detached from the people who would have been ready to implement his plans. To make matters more complex for Goto, Shinobu Nagumo, his peer who is now ascending the ranks beyond him, is emotionally attached to the case, verbally insistent that Goto not involve himself, and clearly doesn't share the same feeling for him as those that he's been poorly hiding from her.
The movie was clearly Oshii's. It was utilizing the ideas he had been working into the title. By reflection, it was Goto's movie. Each was the commander and architect. Each was the oldest and had the most context. Each had an ambivalence towards the dichotomy of official power and protest movements.
This narrative is handled in the Oshii distinctive manner. Ideas are conveyed in speech like conversations and almost taking a psychometric read on the depicted world.
In the same way he wasn't trying to and didn't create the mad kinetic bounce of Shirow Ghost in the Shell in his anime adaptation, Patlabor 2 isn't a police procedural or investigation; it isn't a thriller or a running chase; though unlike Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, it isn't a meditation either. Goto is experiencing an anatomy lesson. He's following the flow of capillaries in one set of events and seeing the form of the urban organism. But, he's managing the crisis, not changing the larger problems. Oshii's works are conscious of the effect a Goto figure can have. He can know too much. He can dabble and aid the non-governmental movement, but he's fighting cultural momentum.
An Oshii trademark is scene of moving through a space as a read:
Matsui's hazy walk into Tokyo in the first Patalabor, the dive surfacing or disconnected strol in the first Ghost in the Shell, or the carnival procession in the second. There is a sort of pressure in these that allows the moment to reverberate. Patlabor 2 is full of these moments, as if it was constantly listing for the pulse of the city. of actions on the city
Oshii applies an aura of nature to give the movie layers of symbolism. It is an extra-human element sees through the machination of the plots. Bird symbolism predates the bible, and dogs seeing danger and its absence is certainly not a new addition to fiction, but Oshii employs them artfully: birds as a mirror of intension; dogs as locators and fish the simularly obvious, but well employed implication of immersion. Oshii isn't inventing a new language in his animal use, but for the most part, it is subtle, well integrated into the scenes and effective.
There is a robot action scene, but for the most part, Patlabor is a movie that could have been created in live action. Especially given that much of the movie relies of nuanced human composure, which the movie rendered in a generally non-abstract manner, using actors might have been tempting. Nor is it exactly a case of a creators who work with animation as a strictly chosen medium, Oshii worked with flavors of live action before and since. What animation does afford is a specific picture of a landscape, which is integral to the theme. The Tokyo of Patlabor isn't exactly the Tokyo of 1993 and the effect not precisely available or readable to the same depth with set design
Throughout the movie Oshii touches on genre conventions without following their dictates. To an extent, the movie is a reunion feature, with the cast of the title reuniting. Yet, when the characters are seen again, the intervening years have made, "different people" wouldn't be the right, changed people. Nor does returning to old actions roll back the calendar. The behavior is more an in the manner of someone who changed after becoming a parent going out for a night. Noa in particle still works with labors, but no longer projects "pet" or "superhero" onto them. They are what the machines are in Patlabor, the tools of an occupation. When warned that her actions in aiding Goto might result in being banned from working with the patlabors, she fires back that she has no desire to be defined by her affiliation with the machines. (Oshii speaking about his career?) Conversely, Asuma has begun thinking idealistically, inspired by thoughts of labors beyond use for construction and law enforcement, more along the lines of what they can lend to the endeavor of exploration. Oshii is able to keep this development of existing, audience-familiar characters under the control of his narrative focus. Their scenes are quick, but exhibit a satisfying depth and consciously remain true to the personalities involved. There presence enhance the scope and demonstrates the effect that these events have on their participants
Patlabor 2 is not a pulse raising movie. It's not speculative or metaphysical. Its theme involves political specifics and arose out of contemplating Japan more than 13 years ago. Yet the movie holds a relevance to modern western audiences. While the constitution of the United States isn't constructed to facilitate comparable conflicts between civilian and military authorities, and the nation is not at state of "unjust peace", America's state of war does bear a resemblence to Patlabor Japan's state of peace. While in the US, many are at war and deployed or effected by the deployment of troups, many others and perhaps the culture itself are disconnected from the events. At the same time, as the movie suggests of Japan while the war is not felt, the economic benefits from a military industrial complex are. An indictment like Patlabor 2's is rare in popular. If closest approximation to works that raises the question of Patlabor are documentaries.
Otakon Licensing Announcements
The following titles were announced on Baltimore’s Otakon convention
ADV Films
Shin Angyo Onshi, to be released at "Blade of the Phantom Mask", based on Korean stories
Utawarerumono to be released as "Shadow Warrior Chronicles". based on an adult strategy video game (kindof like Fate/stay night, but that game is more of "visual novel"), a fantasy about masked man who is found without memories and taken in by a village of people with animal ears and tails
Broccoli
Disgaea 2
Digital Manga Publishing
Flower of Life by Fumi Yoshinaga (Antique Bakery)
Dramaqueen
Invoke by Higashizato Kiriko
Not/Love by Miyamoto Kano
Omen by Tateno Makoto
Peter Panda by Na Ye-Ri
Promise by Eun-Young Lee
Tyrant Who Falls In Love by Hinako Takanaga
June Manga
Fake Fur by Yamagata Satomi
Kurashina Sensei’s Passion by Natsuho Shino
La Vie En Rose by Sadahiro Mika
Paradise On The Hill by Tenzen Momoko
Wagamama Kitchen by Kaori Monchi
Waru by Hashida Yukari
FUNimation
School Rumble: a shonen school relationship comedy
TOKYOPOP:
Heaven!! By Shizumi Seino
Bandai Visual USA Gunbuster Placeholder Site
Anime on DVD points out Bandai Visual USA, not to be confused with Bandai Entertainment, has posted a placeholder site for their upcoming release of Gainax's Evangelion pre-cursor here.
Merchandise
Yamato USA, the North American division of the Yamato Group has announced the opening of pre-orders for Yamato’s latest line of collectible figures: CREATORS’ LABO. Similar to Yamato’s Japanese Sculptor Original Character Series (JSCOS), CREATORS’ LABO pays tribute to the leading sculptors and artists in a unique blending of their creative talents. With a tip of the hat to the popular anime Burst Angel, the North American launch of CREATORS’ LABO will feature the work of renowned sculptor Kang Yong of the four person sculpting team Cerberus Project TM in a 1/7 scale PVC statue playfully capturing the robust personality of the leading lady Meg in a wonderous display of fan service.
Yamato's CREATOR'S LABO - BURST ANGEL - Meg will be available this fall. Yamato USA and its distribution partners AAA Anime, BBCW, Entertainment Earth, & Grosnor Distribution are now excepting retailer pre-orders for this special piece through August 23.
Figures.com has posted images of Go Hero's upcoming kaiju (Godzilla-monster) vinyl figure here.
Kotobukiya's Armor Core mecha figures can be seen here
Organic Hobby has announced the September releases of Kaiyodo's Revoltech series will be the Eva 00 - (Kai or Zerogouki) from Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Ingram from Patlabor. The 5.5" figures will retail or $22 each. Figure.com has images here.
Organic Hobby's six 4" Capcom Companion Character mini-fictures can be seen here
The figures stand five and half inches tall, have around fourteen articulation points and each character comes equipped with "replaceable" parts and accessories. Both carry a SRP of $22 each.
In non-anime, weird anime figures news, Raving Toy Manic reports Dynatech Action Inc. has announced "Edibles", candy action figures with movable parts. See here
STRANGEco vinyl files shown as San Diego Comic-Con can be see here
Upcoming Geneon Premieres
Geneon will be releasing the first volume of stop motion animated Hello Kitty: Stump Village on October 31st. Hellsing Ultimate will be released on December 5th.
Saiyuki Reload: Complete Box Set will be released on October 24th for $159.98
The legendary Sanzo group continues on the path to saving the world from the revival of Gyumaoh and his demons. As they travel, Goku, Gojyo, Hakkai and Sanzo use their tremendous powers to restore peace to Shangri-la. However, there are many who wish for the victory of the dark side . .
Shana: DVD/CD Combo Pack will be released on September 26th for $39.98
Yuji Sakai is about to learn that there is more to the world than going to school and finding a girl friend when he meets a sword-wielding girl with fiery red eyes and flame colored hair. Denizens of the Crimson Realm are invading our world and its up to the Flame Haze, Shana to slay them. However, when Yuji gets in the way of her sword, he learns that death is much more different than he imagined it would be. Experience their story as Yuji and Shana work together to defeat the Denizens of the Crimson World and learn more about each other and the worlds they are from.
Four live action Ninja Vixens (originally Kunoichi nimpoden) will be released in September and October for 19.98 each
The following anime sound tracks will be released on September 5th
Kamichu!
Psychic Academy Aura Bansho
his Ugly Yet Beautiful World
Paprika? Maybe Not
After posting a holder page on the Sony Home Entertainment Site mentioning that Satoshi Kon's Paprika will be released in the US in October 2006, the company clarified that this will not be the case. Instead, the film is tentatively scheduled for a theatrical run in March 2007.
Twelve Kingdoms Release Info
Anime on DVD reports that TOKYOPOP will be releasing the first of seven in original novels of elaborate fantasy Twelve Kingdoms in 2007. The volume will be subtitled "Shadow of the Moon/The Sea of Shadow". The hard cover volume will be 240 pages long at a 5" x 7" trim-size and retail for $16.99. The novels were adapted into a well regarded anime, released in North America by Media Blasters' Anime Works.
Oshii's Grifters at Venice
© 2006 MAMORU OSHII, Production I.G / TACHIGUISHI RETSUDEN Committee
Production I.G has announced that Mamoru Oshii's latest feature film "Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters" (original Japanese title:
Tachiguishi Retsuden, 2006) has been selected for the Horizons Section at the 63. Venice Film Festival (63. Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica, Sezione Orizzonti), to be held in Venice from August 30, 2006 to September 9, 2006.
Director Mamoru Oshii comments, "I have things that I keep in mind when I make a movie. For animation, I try to imagine it as closely as possible to live action, and for live action, I interpret it as animation. A movie that has as much information as live action, while maintaining the logical hierarchy of animation, is what I consider the most ideal movie. I made "The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters" to show how it reflects this ideal form. The movie also examines Japan’s postwar history from the dietary culture's standpoint. The historical accounts mentioned in the movie are all facts, the majority of the other elements including the eight main characters are fictitious, so please do not be deceived. Lastly, I want to express my appreciation for choosing this eccentric movie. Thank you."
Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, President and CEO of Production I.G, as well as producer of the movie, comments, "When I heard of the news, it made me believe once again that the goddess of the movies indeed exists! I also believe that The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters was selected for the Venice Film Festival because people knew that this was the type of movie that Director Oshii had been longing to create for years, and they recognized his achievements during his career. On behalf of the production team, I would like to express my sincere appreciation."
"Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters" retells Japan's history from 1945 to our days through the feats of self-proclaimed dine and dash professionals -the Fast Food Grifters. They are phantoms that rise and fall with Japan's shifting diet-styles, dissenting heroes who carved their names on the dark side of dietary culture with their glare.
And now their legend revives, strong than ever!
The movie, in a mockumentary style, has received particular attention for the revolutionary visual technique adopted, called "superlivemation," in which real people still photos are first digitalized and then computer-animated. The extraordinary cast includes Toshio Suzuki (Studio Ghibli’s producer), Kenji Kamiyama ("Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex"director), Shoji Kawamori ("Macross" and "Aquarion" director), and Shinji Higuchi ("Lorelei" and "Japan Sinking" director). The music score is written by Oshii's most trusted composer, Kenji Kawai ("Ghost in the Shell", "Innocence" and Hideo Nakata's "Ring"), who is also playing
