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February 27, 2006
UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie, Gantz Season 1
AnimeTalk a bi-weekly column by Don Houston, John Sinnott, and Todd Douglass This week we have a look at some more anime series released in thinpak season sets. This is a great way to stretch your anime dollar, as they are usually priced at a small fraction of what the individual volumes go for. Originally released on 2 episode DVDs, Gantz is an untraviolent fan favorite which is much more enjoyable to watch as a season set. On the other end of the spectrum, Wedding Peach is a fun Sailor Moon type show that is sure to please the young and young at heart. We also have reviews of Outlanders, a classic show that doesn't quite stand the test of time, and Samurai 7 which continues to be an excellent series. There's also an early peek at UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie, Holly's Anime Bargains, and our table of upcoming releases. All in this week's Anime Talk.
The Latest
Anime Reviews:
Outlanders was one of the shows to get released on VHS back in the relatively early days of anime fandom. Distributed only in a dubbed version (and a rather awful dub at that if memory serves) the show was fairly popular due to manga release by Dark Horse Comics. CPM has now released this classic show on DVD with both the original track, for the first time in the US, and a new English dub. While this show did have a lot of charm a decade and a half ago, it hasn't stood up well to the test of time. The story about a female alien warrior who falls in love with an Earth teen while trashing the planet, and the troubles that causes was entertaining enough back in the day, now it leaves something to be desired. The animation is rather poor, there is too much plot crammed into too little time, and now a days the show seems a bit silly.
In Tetsujin 28: V3: The Phantom Thief, Shotaro Kaneda, a genius boy detective in mid-1950’s Japan, wields a giant robot built by his late father to fight a variety of menaces all tied to the end of WWII. The retro nature of the show will certainly appeal to many anime fans as well as those looking for something to watch with their kids. This four episode set sees the end of the Super Human Kelly arc, a story about a shape shifting alien, another about a medical experiment gone awry, and yet another about a scientist using forbidden technology to steal from the rich and give to himself while Shotaro seeks to capture him. Each plays off as a morality story though does so in the manner already established in this fine show, making it worth checking out by young and old alike. Lastly, in ADV Films’ own little experiment with ad-lib dubbing, some of the most talented names in voice acting are given almost completely free reign to make up the stories as they go along in Ghost Stories 3: Junior Jitters. As in other volumes of the series, you'll either like it or hate it depending largely on your own taste for juvenile humor as this team of junior ghost busters tries to rectify the release of a number of dangerous ghosts by a construction company near their school. For our team of crack reviewers though, the end result was far less satisfying as the unstructured experiment in dubbing relied far too heavily on appealing to the lowest common denominator fan with lame bathroom humor, jokes about homosexuality, and the like. The third volume of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig continues to craft an interesting and multilayered story. The plot thickens as the enigmatic and grossly disfigured Mr. Gohda reveals a tiny portion of what's up his sleeve, and the problems with the refugees escalate. The disc ends with some bizarre events taking place that don't seem to make any sense, drawing viewers deeper into this season's mystery. If you enjoyed the first season of this excellent show, you'll want to pick up this series too. If you enjoy magical girls that can transform into butt-kicking heroines then you may find yourself getting into Wedding Peach. The show is off beat with a whacky sense of humor and a nonsensical plot, though to be fair it doesn't really go anywhere. This thinpak collection is only half of the entire series and features all of the episodes from season one. The show also doesn't find a voice of its own and feels like a copycat of stuff like Sailor Moon. Fans of the genre will appreciate it much more than others, but the average otaku is better of skipping or renting it.
Videogame to anime crossovers are not a rare commodity in today's industry. We've seen Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, and Mega Man all get their own series so it should be no surprise that yet another one has joined their ranks. That new kid on the block is Viewtiful Joe. If you've played the games then you already know that Joe isn't your usually superhero. He's a regular bloke who got sucked into a movie (kind of like Last Action Hero) and was given superpowers by his idol, Captain Blue. The anime features a lot of action and humor, but there are some flaws here in the presentation of the show on DVD. There are only three episodes on the first volume and the entire thing is presented with the English dubbing as the only audio track. Needless to say this makes for a very barebones and disappointing release, but none-the-less it proves to be a lot of fun. Be sure to take a look at recommendations by DVDTalk’s twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Top Ten Anime discs of 2005 articles.
Scheduled for release on March 7, 2006
Scheduled for release on March l4, 2006
Something
to Look Forward To
UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie Poor Kazuto. He's a high school student who lives with his younger sister and runs the bathhouse that his grandfather started. It's hard running the bath house, studying for school and making ends meet, but things get even worse when an alien space ship crashes into his house....and kills him. The ship was being driven by an outerspace babe/princess Valkyrie who is running away from an arranged marriage that she doesn't want any part of. In true Ultraman fashion she feels guilty about killing Kazuto, so she gives him half of her soul. This brings Kazuto back to life, but also turns Valkyrie into an very young girl in both mind and body. She moves in with Kazuto and his sister and helps around the bath house. The fact that she goes around telling everyone that she's given Kazuto "the most precious thing a girl can give a boy" doesn't help Kazuto's social life any either. This can be an amusing show, even if we've seen it all before. Kazuto is a Tenchi-like guy who soon finds himself handling not only with the six year old princess Valkyrie, but an army of cat-girl maids sent to take care of the princess and Hydra, a tough as they come woman who is supposed to take Valkyrie's place at the wedding if she doesn't bring the run away princess back. On Kazuto's side though, is Valkyrie, and whenever they kiss she turns back into her adult form, albeit briefly, and can use her magical powers to get out of just about any hairy situation. Taking place in a bathhouse there's a lot of nudity including Valkyrie's transformation sequence when everyone can watch her breasts explode onto the screen. With a good amount of humor and the cast of wacky characters, UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie may be a winner.
What do you think about the column? Like what you see?
Don't like it? Have a comment or suggestion? Drop us an e-mail
and let us know!
February 13, 2006
Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Salaryman Kintaro
AnimeTalk a bi-weekly column by Don Houston, John Sinnott, Chris Tribbey, and Todd Douglass This week we have capsle reviews of some really good shows, and some that aren't so great. On the good side, ADV has released the restored version of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, and this time it has an English dub which is great for those who want to share this show with younger children. The boxed set of Neo Ranga should please kaiju fans, and Salaryman Kintaro is a surprisingly good look at a white collar worker with an attitude. On the other side of the coin the second season of Kaleido Star isn't nearly as good as the first one, and Doki Doki School Hours just isn't as funny as it should be. In addition to a slew of new reviews, there's our table of upcoming discs, and Holly's Anime Bargains.
The Latest
Anime Reviews:
Reviewers John Sinnott and Don Houston both liked the first season of Kaleido Star, an amusing show about a young girl, Sora, who wants to become a circus performer. So when the first volume of the second season arrived, John snagged the review copy before Don could and popped it into his DVD player right away. Big mistake. Unfortunately this season, after spending the first two (!) episodes recapping the previous storyline, loses all of the charm that the first year had. The plot is contrived, the characters are acting like idiots, and everyone seems to have forgotten that Sora is one of the best acrobats in the world. Hopefully the series will improve, but John tends to doubt it. That'll teach him to be greedy.
As John predicted in his review of the first disc, volume two of Doki Doki School Hours is much like the first one with many of the same gags and jokes being reworked once again. The concept of a short teacher trying to control a bunch of students with odd personality quirks has worked well before, most notably in Azumanga Diaoh, but this series just isn't able to breath life into the characters of humor into the scripts. The fifth volume of E's Otherwise is better than the previous volume, but it's still only a mediocre series. In this set of shows Kai, Yuuki and Oska search for the rebel underground base all while being tracked by Ashurum psychics. Unfortunately this plot, like the others before it, meanders around aimlessly and doesn't really kick start the show, something that it badly needs. With the third volume of Mythical Detective Loki, the series starts to play up the humor aspects of the show and improves a bit. The characters still don't resemble anyone from Norse mythology, and the plots are a little bit dumb, but there's a certain charm to some of these shows. If you're looking for a poor man's version of Case Closed, you've found it.
Everybody who is familiar with Cowboy Bebop no doubt perked an ear when they heard about Shinichiro Watanabe's new series, Samurai Champloo. These shows combined music and anime in a way that hasn't really been done before. Well, at least to such a successful and hip degree. While Bebop took a look at a group of futuristic bounty hunters, Champloo goes back to the days of feudal Japan for a little samurai action and irreverent fun. The series weighs in with a lot of energy and pizzazz and the sixth volume here isn't very different. The only problem is that there is less continuity with this show and the episodes on this disc are all over the map. The fact that there are only three episodes here and two of them are stand alone goofy stories doesn't help much, but even so this is a great anime. The second and last volume of Bottle Fairy has come out and the four tiny fairies continue their quest to learn about humanity and the Japanese culture. There's a lot of cute stuff that happens in these seven episodes but it's still not enough to bring the series to recommendation level. The ending is pretty cool and to be honest if the show had run off of that idea it could have been much better. Fans of loli and adorable anime will appreciate this show the most while everybody else could probably go on living without seeing it or at the very least renting it.
Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick: V2 prepares the crew for their journey to encounter the Moby Dick as they fight off mobsters, government agents, and the logistics of long term space travel in order to save Lucky's planet from devastation. Captain Ahab's sorted past comes to light as he's hunted down by a detective with a grudge to bear and it's up to Lucky and Dew to come to his rescue. While there are those who think author Hermann Melville, the original writer of Moby Dick, will be spinning in his grave over this anime adaptation, we think it's getting better with time as it broadens the themes established in the classic book. Yuri and Kei are back in Original Dirty Pair: Complete OVA Collection, the collected OVA boxed set from ADV Films. A classic of anime clichés, the agents of the World Welfare Work Agency are sent in to right wrongs, set things right and generally destroy anything in their path as they spend these ten episodes show. If you're looking for carnage and skimpy clothing, you've come to the right place in this value packed set from the 1980's. All sorts of tales concerning civil wars, rampaging cyborgs, prison breaks, murder mysteries, and marriage come into play with a whole lot more too.
A romance set in a timeless kingdom best describes Princess Tutu: Erwachen V3 as the show finishes its run with rivals trying to protect Mythos begrudgingly combining forces to save him from the Crow Princess, even if fulfilling the prophecy means dooming Princess Tutu forever. Fans of ballet, classical music, and romance anime will have a lot to appreciate this time as most of the threads are tied up in some decidedly unique ways. The next installment in the long running Lupin series comes out with Lupin the 3rd: V13: All's Fair in Love & Thievery. One of the things people seem to appreciate about the world famous thief is that he's consistent; consistently getting into trouble that is. While the series drops down to a mere five episodes from the previously established six, the antics of Lupin and his team chug right along as if nothing happened. From being shrunken down for a dangerous game of chess to Zenigata pleading for assistance in solving a case, Lupin is in great demand once more (or is that five times more?) in this assortment of blasts from the past.
Bocca continues his fight against the demon invaders of Earth in Melody of Oblivion: Solo V4. Other than a few minor surprises about the entire Warriors of Mythos set up and a relationship of partner Sayoko, the series is increasingly difficult to follow as the clichés are purposely stood on end at regular intervals as though a series of insider jokes is being presented without the context in order to understand them. That made it almost painful to sit through and another reason to look towards better shows of all types in the future. Be sure to take a look at recommendations by DVDTalk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Top Ten Anime discs of 2005 articles.
Scheduled for release on Feb. 21, 2006
Scheduled for release on Feb. 28, 2006
What do you think about the column? Like what you see?
Don't like it? Have a comment or suggestion? Drop us an e-mail
and let us know!
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If
you've been reading our reviews over the last year, you'll know how reviewer
John Sinnott has felt about the individual releases of 
In
a far flung futuristic Earth, powerful robot bandits that were once honorable
samurai terrorize farming villages at the bequest of corrupt merchants.
One village is fed up with the status quo so they send a water priestess
to the city in order to recruit a team of samurai willing to fight the
bandits in 
The
last volume of the 
Check
Out Your Local Best Buy for:
Fans
of Godzilla-like monsters tearing through Tokyo may appreciate 
In
the past week we've caught up on a very good series that hasn't gotten
a lot of buzz: Salaryman Kintaro. This series is unlike
the other anime shows that are being released in the US, as its setting
is the offices of a large corporation. Though there aren't any super-heroics
or mecha vehicles, the show about the lives of everyday workers is very
entertaining. Yajima Kintaro was the leader of a motorcycle gang
10,000 strong. A couple of years ago he gave that up and moved away
to settle down with his new wife. Unfortunately she died in childbirth,
and now Yajima and his infant son Ryu are moving back to the city.
The ex-gang leader is hired by a large firm, Yamato Construction,
to work as a white collar office employee, and though the job isn't a good
one Yajima approaches it with the same gusto and philosophy that he used
to run his gang: kick ass and take names. This is a fun series, check
out our reviews of volumes 
On
a more positive note, the sixth volume of 
Everybody
loves Tenchi; or at least they should. The often revisited franchise has
been long in tooth for some time now, but yet another Tenchi Muyo! series
has come along: 
ADV
Films provides yet another value oriented season boxed set with 
Check
Out Your Local Best Buy for:
