#72: Space Patrol Luluco (2016)

Fromhttps://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/spacepatrolluluco/
images/b/b3/Cover.png/revision/latest?cb=20160409043813

Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi

Screenplay: Hiroyuki Imaishi

Voice Cast: M.A.O as Luluco, Junya Enoki as ΑΩ Nova, Mayumi Shintani as Midori, Mitsuo Iwata as Keiji, Nobuyuki Hiyama as Blackholian, Tetsu Inada as Chief Director Overjustice, Youko Honna as Lalaco Godspeed

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

Synopsis: Luluco (M.A.O.) if anything is an ordinary thirteen year old schoolgirl...who just happens to live in Ogikubo, a hub for aliens and humans on the planet Earth, whose father is a Space Patrol member who accidentally freezes himself when a piece of equipment is eaten in his breakfast, and Luluco is forced to take his place in the Space Patrol. That's before you get to her mother being a space pirate, and general evil that must be defeated by justice, all whilst Luluco develops a crush with fellow recruit named ΑΩ Nova (Junya Enoki)

[Full Spoilers Throughout]

A new Hiroyuki Imaishi piece...I admit to have taken a while to finally get to Space Patrol Luluco, but I've always been up for whatever new project he helms. I admit that a lot of the delay to actually seeing this thirteen episode series is that, distributed by the streaming site CrunchyRoll, it has been an exclusive to their site and yet to be released in the UK. This way of promoting their own site, having unique titles of their own, is wise business practice.  It is baffling that an Imaishi title hasn't been released in the UK, which does provide a double edge sword when it comes to streaming - that, unless this is permanently on CrunchyRoll, there's always going to be the danger of when the license runs out. There's also the fact that, whilst there are many of us who finally got around to subscribing to the site like myself, one wonders how many people do use these sights and would be introduced to stuff like this. It needs a proper evaluation, with the likelihood as much of streaming being as successful if not more than physical media, but it does suck that stuff like this isn't on British store shelves.

Space Patrol Luluco though is peculiar and appropriate for this streaming era as, including opening and end credits, the episodes are only around seven minutes long, Imaishi's Studio Trigger having rode the wave of micro-series gladly. It's a testament to them, as this could've been a single feature length story, that the plot is incredibly economic and fleshed out in those few minutes. (In fact, in one of the more peculiar aspects, the thirteen episodes are actually meant to make up a couple of larger episodes named "Seasons", playing up to this being one large work to binge on). It helps that Imaishi has gotten down pat stories like this too - a young teenager finding him or herself and being a hero, in this case a young girl finding love in a mysterious figure known as ΑΩ Nova, whose almost blank handsomeness proves part of his plotline of being actually a villain's henchmen who literally needs a heart a la The Wizard of Oz. This type of material is the director/writer playing to deliberately ridiculous levels, sincere to the point of camp as Luluco's space pirate mother Lalaco Godspeed (Yōko Honna) ends up arguing with her husband that now's the right time in her life to start dating, all in the midst of an outer space battle where everyone's elaborate transformation is into gun shapes. If anything, "Justice" is a word you're going to have to get used to, because it's shouted off the rafters in comically dynamic ways over and over and over again...

From http://www.killahbeez.com/wordpress/wp-content/
uploads/2016/04/SpacePatrolLuluco-042016.jpg

If anything the premise is just an excuse for Studio Trigger to flex their muscles and show their animation staff is better than anyone else's, the equivalent of a little desert with this tiny series better made than longer, full length shows. With experimentation too - the end credits are a gorgeous piece, set to a dream pop track, of cut-outs of Luluco and ΑΩ Nova as tiny figures moving in stills across a real Japanese street. If this is all ego stroking, Trigger are at least backing it up with talent. Not surprising, as the series is meant to celebrate them, so that self congratulatory nature is purposeful even as being part of the plot; part of the series, "Season" three, after erstwhile villainess-turned-Space Patrol member Midori helps contribute, with the help of her quasi-legal Blackhole App, into the patrol searching outer space for the entirety of Ogikubo, is where most of the cameos from other Trigger series take place.

The one for Kill La Kill (2013-14) is merely the style - the music and the living red string - but those for Little Witch Academia and Imaishi's Japan Animator Expo short Sex&VIOLENCE with MACHSPEED (2015) involve characters from those works. Inferno Cop (2012-13), another Trigger project where they dabbled with micro-series with success, is used in a much more interesting context, the titular character officially in two roles like he's an Osamu Tezuku character template - one as the police chief of the Space Patrol, mainly stuck behind a desk wearing giant shades, and as himself offering advice to a dead and heartbroken Luluco to come back to life and pick herself up from her issues. The segments referencing the other productions, "Season" three is arguably the weakest aspect of the whole series for me, but I have to admit it's pretty hilarious the most ridiculous of all the characters is the one who has the most material to work with - who knew Inferno Cop could offer inspiration advice?

From https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/animevice/images/4/47/
Midori_%28SPACE_PATROL_LULUCO_Ep_3%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20160416013442

If there's a flaw with Space Patrol Luluco, it's a slight show. Even if you excise the entire third chapter, of four episodes, where most of the references come into play, there's not a lot of time to build on the material especially as the show. One of the most curious aspects about Imaishi is that, despite his almost ADD levels of exaggeration, some of his best work plays with long length series, each arch changing the tone or plot in ways which build up his premises immensely. Particularly here, as it gets ridiculous with cosmic thieves with black hole heads and a giant battle using the power of love at the end, you could've easily had a longer series from this material.

The other obvious issue, felt with Sex&VIOLENCE with MACHSPEED and now here, is that whilst Imaishi still has my respect and good will as a creator and I liked this series, he needs to try something different now. Personally, even next to his divisive debut Dead Leaves (2004), Space Patrol Luluco is his weakest work. It is still good, but it has faded from memory especially with the expectations I had. These expectations were too high considering the presentation and context for the show, but if anything, the issue is that Imaishi's style with Studio Trigger is perfect, but he needs to now stray into a different genre or story type and keep himself fresh. Hell, a story about Japanese flower arranging from him would be awesome and would be welcomed at this point in his career, because Studio Trigger's reputation is so high still for many anime fans that they could take the gamble and likely make the best looking anime with that premise or any other. There is a sense, if anything, that after Kill La Kill Imaishi's yet to actually properly follow it up, as Space Patrol Luluco shouldn't be that title, instead the brief but sweet and fun work it was. How the director and founder of Studio Trigger would follow one of his biggest works is the new question and one he needs to think about carefully now after this particular example.

From https://theanimeharvest.files.wordpress.com/
2016/07/evangelion-reference.png

#71: Black Lion (1992)

From https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjMx
NWFjNjMtMTNjNy00NjE1LTg2ZjctNzJiZmY5
OTYzNWY4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzM4MjM0Nzg@._V1_.jpg

Director: Takashi Watanabe

Screenplay: Ritsuko Hayasaka and Yasunori Takagi

Based on a manga by Go Nagai

Voice Cast: Yasunori Matsumoto/David Stokey as Shishimaru, Yūsaku Yara/Jose Brown as Ginnai Doma, Ai Orikasa/Kathryn Dineen as Hayabusa, Kan Fujimoto/Robert Rudie as Momoji, Kazuyuki Sogabe/Charles Campbell as Oda Nobunaga

Viewed in English Dub

Synopsis: In feudal Japan, the legendary figure Oda Nobunaga has acquired futuristic weaponry like tanks and rifles and is dominating the country as a result. Amongst his allies is Ginnai Doma, a man whose family was killed by ninja and would've have passed on to another life were it not for Nobunaga's intervention, turning him into an unstoppable killer hell bent for revenge on all ninja. One such ninja, Shishimaru, desires revenge Ginnai Doma for the loss of his clan, begrudgingly joining another clan of ninja to stop Doma immediately before he finishes them all off.

Black Lion, a straight-to-video anime, is so ridiculously manly one enthusiastic anime podcaster for the Anime World Order podcast showed his love for the forty minute plus program by punching himself in the testicles mid-recording¹. And considering this is an adaptation of a Go Nagai work, that's not surprising either. Nagai is a legendary manga author, one of the most influential in the medium whose creations - from Cutey Honey to Devilman - are still be adapted to anime today. He even challenged Osamu Tezuka, the "Godfather of Manga", at least being an influence, even if subconscious, on Tezuka going into his more adult and explicit content of the seventies alongside the other bludgeoning manga authors charting that course. Nagai, going through anime adaptations of his work and now able to start on his actual manga, is also an incredible illustrator. Also, he's as mad as a box of frogs.

It's not surprising in lieu of this he created Black Lion - part of an ongoing obsession in Japanese culture of modern technology landing in their past of samurai. Black Lion starts off abruptly with said samurai mowing down ninjas with machine guns, and even a leader of the later having a secret room to his paper wall compound with a super computer, housed behind an iron mechanical door, but it does eventually make sense of this. In this world, the legendary historical figure Oda Nobunaga has ended up encountering evil aliens, who through time travel provide him with future technology, and eventually evoking in this mere fragment of the original manga also good aliens about to take part in this conflict of anachronisms. The spaceship over period Japan that closes the OVA is itself as strange a juxtaposition as it sounds.

From https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-rUbYpEwYAQ8/TW3CixhsiCI/
AAAAAAAAATw/tAzuJZmligk/s1600/vlcsnap-2011-02-23-21h50m16s191.png

This is also a work obsessed with Oda Nobunaga, the real life 16th warrior who was one of the first to unify Japan during a chaotic period of war through the Sengoku Period. He was very culturally minded, had little issue with interacting with Westerners (to the point he is viewed/confused as having been Christian) and took advantage of it, and is also a divisive figure for how ruthless and violent he was in war and as a ruler. In Japanese pop culture, he's been depicted as being a demon or being in the pocket of demons. He's also been gender swapped into a girl twice - The Ambition of Oda Nobuna (2012) and Sengoku Collection (2012) - and tried to control the world with a demonically possessed satellite and time travel against a heroic samurai and Jean Reno in Onimusha 3: Demon Siege (2004). In their vast and weird interpretations, his representations centuries later are so numerous he inexplicably deserves a blog tag himself as his own subgenre, only if he has a cameo here providing the mortally wounded Ginnai Doma the robotic body and murderous urge to be a threat to all ninja.

All of Black Lion is focused on Ginnai Doma being Terminator-like and ninja dying on mass trying to stop him, our cocky lead Shishimaru with his own vendetta against him established at the beginning. A parade of gore and violence takes place for the whole forty minutes which is trashy; something I openly admit is an acquired taste. It has the decency, however, to just make the entire OVA about just trying kill Doma, over that length of time actually compelling as the ninja become more and more exasperated and the maddening attempts to just him finish off lead to more of them dying, usually in horrible ways. Its sickly humorous if you feel that way inclined, but also has more interest to it than if just another ultraviolent OVA from the nineties which juggled multiple plot threads at this running time with no rhyme or meaning behind them, because at least it sticks to one idea and runs it into the ground with all the sense that it couldn't have forgotten anything that would've made it better than it is.    

From https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-o1bcf4ZDhC4/TW2pVF8joWI/AAAAAAAAATY/
yZQKXMDduQA/s1600/vlcsnap-2011-02-24-21h52m07s156.png

Aside from this, you're enjoyment is entirely how absurd this becomes and how much you can appreciate it. Viewing the OVA in English may prove better for some viewers just for David Stokey's constantly shouted and loud performance as lead Shishimaru, as unlikable a ninja as you could get in his attitude, an obnoxious individual who refuses to play ball and gets at least one person killed if not more, adding the tone. The OVA is adequately animated, entirely more about the content itself rather than any elaborate style. Where someone is going to blow up everyone with a nuclear powered battery within himself or herself, lasers are fired from mouths, and the body count is stupidly high. Even illusions with burning marijuana used are involved and the dialogue especially in shouted English is going to add to the absurdity of it all. All of it is silly, but with Go Nagai, I realise soon into my proper introduction to his original work Nagai is both a very talented artist, but in his ability to mix wackiness with the nightmarish, he indulges to his id to conjure his stories. Even if they are potentially problematic or absurd, he writes material like this as with many manga authors to make each page compelling, which is entirely why you get stuff between this or a Mad Bull 34 (1990) which baffle and amuse decades later now we have ironic and non-ironic viewing.

Black Lion is no different, only with the issue that, merely a fragment which completes its small narrative but with an open conclusion, it's entirely about the most outlandish gore, stunts and twists rather than anything more in-depth. Its, frankly, insubstantial even next to other insane action OVAs of the time, and Nagai's work has been adapted into more memorable and batshit forms. Some were even legitimately good. It is however, if you can be enthused by it, providing enough energy to encourage other viewers to punch themselves in the crotch, so be prepared. I wasn't one such person, but I can sympathise with the masochistic energy that would encourage one to.

From https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ctOGZeTQgz4/TW2_FuRBVII/
AAAAAAAAATk/tuUYYSnIxR8/s1600/vlcsnap-2011-02-24-22h15m19s254.png

====

1) Episode # 54c. Not one of their usual shows, running over ten years plus, so I wouldn't necessarily choose it as your first; it is however memorable just for the Black Lion review.

#70: Bananya (2016)

From https://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire4/88913f32510892
edab18897ba8d7e7121467609844_full.jpg

Director: Kyō Yatate

Screenplay: Kyō Yatate

Voice Cast:

Yuuki Kaji as Bananya/ Black Bananya/ Calico Bananya/ Daddy Bananya/ Long-haired Bananya

Ayumu Murase as Baby Bananya / Bananya Bunch / Bananyako / Mackeral Bananya / Torabananya / Mice

Yoshikazu Ebisu as Narrator

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

Synopsis: The life of a bananya, a tiny cat who lives in a banana skin, with his relatives and friends, also bananyas living in a Japanese home; all with our faceless narrator our amateur anthropologist to the world of these creatures.

Will this be the shortest review possible?

Well, hopefully not, but three minutes per episode and based entirely on cats being cute Bananya is going to be difficult to elaborate on. It's another, growing example of bite sized anime that's become very popular now streaming is a commonplace way to see anime. It's also for me however developing into an issue of what to think of "casual" anime, meant to relax in front of rather to engage with as a programme. Bananya is entirely the cutest of cutest things, with a silly edge, but I'd be damned how to elaborate on any dramatic circumstances that take place barring when the fridge is left open in one episode and all the bananya clan find a world of frozen wonders inside it. That's practically the closest thing here to a mid-season plot twist here...

In this case, you also have to bear in mind animals have always been popular online. Cat and dog videos on YouTube, images of people's own pets on Facebook, so a series which not only has the main story but also always ends with people's real life cats having their own spotlight is appealing to this. (Trust me, I've lived with dogs all my life, it's infectious to see pictures of other people's dogs). There is the issue that, particularly with a potentially funny show like this, I have to be the sour puss (and I apologise for the awful pun) who wished it was a bit more substantial or ran with its strange premise further than it did. More so as, yes, it's actually a funny and weird idea you could've spun out further.

From https://static.vrv.co/imgsrv/display/thumbnail/640x360/catalog/
crunchyroll/1264ae5550a16abc8bc7acc30091c9af.jpg

With voice actor Yoshikazu Ebisu, or anime writer/producer/Discotek Media collaborator Mike Toole for the English dub, as our somewhat clueless David Attenbourgh type trying to document these peculiar creatures it vaguely considers taking this as a literal document on these creatures, at least providing us with an appropriately dawdling narrator constantly excited and bemused by his subjects' behaviour. The main Bananya, voiced by Yuuki Kaji, is happy-go-lucky with potentially creepy aspiration for becoming a chocolate sprinkled covered bananya, even though the question of them being part banana, a food eaten by people, never is brought up thankfully throughout and is a disturbing aspiration goal for the lead if you over think it. Amongst friends and siblings are stock archetypes, my personal favourite the vain pretty boy whose mews with his long uncombed hair flailed about are practically pornographic in its narcissism. In fair due to the series, that's it is built on only three voice actors is an accomplishment to Yuuki Kaji, playing most of the male bananya, Ebisu  just the narrator, and Ayumu Murase playing the higher voiced/child/female bananya and the mice. Yuuki Kaji, voice and singer, particularly has the greatest shifts in voice performances which has to be praised; fans of the Attack on Titan anime adaptation, where he plays the protagonist Eren Yeager, will probably get a kick out of Kaji meowing in a variety of voices as I did learning he's doing most of the feline cast with only one other voice actor here.  

Theirs is a curious life living behind the humans' backs, playing and mucking about in a scenario not dissimilar to the premise of Toy Story. They are curious about the television and using the remote buttons as a trampoline. Night time escapades are a source of frights where shadows scare them. The final episode is them mucking about on a table full of birthday food and making an utter mess of the mother's hard work. And, slightly morbid, there's bananya's relationship to a mouse which is documented in a few episodes, between friendship when he gives him cookies to chasing and trying to eat him at other times. It's colourful, economically made. Even as short form animation, it's imaginative. A refrigerator left open becomes a winter wonderland from conventional food substances being larger than the cast. A bathroom sink a place to use the hand wash as a foam to play with. As cat-fruit hybrids, they act like cats in real life only with a surreal touch that, living in banana skins, they hop around vertically and are the size of bananas. That and the father one has glasses and a comb over.

From https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQUEpwnCwEeROxxJBCxIElauDLS7IoV3Fye7BHMjK6aZ72qc8gBrA

The obvious issue for me is that Bananya, whilst fun to watch, is very quickly slipping away from my mind with little to cling onto now. This is this issue with this form of time killer anime which is meant to help you de-stress from the busy world - for those who want it, it's great, but it proves somewhat anticlimactic if you are someone like myself, no matter how tired or stressed, actually finds more reward in material that forces you to have to think about it or has a good story. This'll be an issue, with good exceptions, to both a lot of this casual anime and short form series for me. As much as its cute, and the end theme as a seconds long earworm is stuck in my head still, (over the bananyas on holiday or coming out of a baseball game), the show's not going to stick in my memory for long.

From https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8d/7c/97/
8d7c971063e2552f388cadffdf156096.jpg

#69: Thunderbolt Fantasy (2016)

From https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV
5BYWJiMTQyYzItZWU3Yy00OGM0LWJkYz
ItOTE1NzAzMzIxMTRhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDU
xNjc5NjY@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,712,1000_AL_.jpg

Director: Chris Huang and Jia-Shiang Wang

Screenplay: Gen Urobuchi

Voice Cast: Junichi Suwabe as Shāng Bù Huàn, Kousuke Toriumi as Lǐn Xuě Yā, Mai Nakahara as Dān Fěi, Tomokazu Seki as Miè Tiān Hái, Kenichi Suzumura as Juǎn Cán Yún, Nobuyuki Hiyama as Shā Wú Shēng, Rikiya Koyama as Shòu Yún Xiāo, Sayaka Ohara as Xíng Hài

Viewed in Japanese (and Taiwanese Hokkien and Mandarin) with English Subtitles

Synopsis: In a world of period fantasy, where the world has been split by a war between human beings and demons, a vagabond named Shāng Bù Huàn finds himself dragged into a conflict when Dān Fěi, a female member of an order known as the Seal Guardians, is the last surviving protector of an ancient sword of incredible power lusted over by the evil Miè Tiān Hái. With Shāng Bù Huàn forced to help by a mysterious and possibly untrustworthy trickster called Guǐ Niǎo, who brings in a demoness and warriors to help, they find themselves on a goal to go directly to Miè Tiān Hái himself and defeat him rather than let him acquire both necessary pieces to gain the sword.

Ah, I've delayed this review enough. I was excited by the idea of Thunderbolt Fantasy when I heard a series had been commissioned using puppetry. For an Englishman like myself who at least has seen one scene from Thunderbirds and such works which used marionettes, this piqued my interest in seeing an older style of entertain be resurrected, but actually starting the series this idea became even more enticing when I knew the full context of Thunderbolt Fantasy. We tend to forget animation includes stop motion and puppetry, and they deserve to be covered whether a Japanese anime steps into this¹. Thunderbolt Fantasy, when I started it, is even more intriguing as its a Japanese-Taiwanese co-production based on Taiwanese glove puppetry. Not only is it a case, as the show proudly shows, that this craft in the modern day creates some incredible pieces who move and interact as living characters but is it keeping a tradition alive, one which is not a Japanese one but a Taiwanese cultural staple being brought to a Japanese (and Western audience). It also means Thunderbolt Fantasy wasn't the Japanese action series using puppets as I thought it would be, but Taiwanese wuxia storytelling told with glove puppets, which is an entirely different tone and style to deal with, and is certainly unique for a thirteen episode series to have in terms of standing out from the crowd of anime productions.

If anything, even if the liberal use of CGI and magical projectiles over actual combat is annoying, you cannot argue stylistically Thunderbolt Fantasy is exceptional. The puppets themselves are incredibly well made creations, lavish and in spite of their fixed faces very expressionistic. Screenshots will give you a great idea that; as elaborate hand puppets rather than on strings as I'd originally presumed them to be without context, they move very fluidly within how they are used rather than the other traditional, and particularly for this type of magical fantasy, they are as recognisable and flamboyant as their various names and alias are in their poetry. In either case, the sense of verisimilitude is found so you can fully invest in them as characters regardless of what they actually are. The additional factor is that this is a wuxia story. Not just martial arts, but wuxia, a very specific form of storytelling which allows for more elaborate, even exaggerated events to transpire. Its carte blanche for all the ridiculous fight scenes, even if I wanted more puppet-on-puppet sword fights rather than them calling out special moves, but this is bearing in mind this is about style as much as a descendant and fantastical form of storytelling that can still be appreciated. One that is melodramatic and where martial artists and sword fighters here can perform superhuman feats.

From https://rosesturnblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/
thunderbolt-fantasy-for-article.jpg?w=750

Set in its own fantasy, quasi-Asian world, where a war between humans and demons have left a split in the land, it doesn't completely explain the world but thankfully it never becomes about convoluted world building either. It uses its setting for character, which helps, such as it being enough for vagabond, grizzled member Shāng Bù Huàn and his claim to have passed over demonic wasteland to even lead to the murderous sociopath named the Screaming Phoenix to question and feel wary of the statement. The characters are interesting in themselves especially as Thunderbolt Fantasy gladly undercuts expectations by having flat-out villains being recruited into the party trying to defeat the main villain. If anything it's a motley and amoral group worthy of dramatic weight, the one pure figure in heroine Dān Fěi, a sect member protecting an ancient sword, the moral centre without becoming as wet as a dishcloth. A grumbling, out of place vagabond Shāng Bù Huàn, who actually has the most rewarding character arch when you finally figure out who he is. The utterly distrustful, trickster Guǐ Niǎo, whose place in this story becomes a huge crux of the narrative. One eyed archer Shòu Yún Xiāo and his cocky, headstrong apprentice Juǎn Cán Yún. A literal demoness Xíng Hài, who hates Guǐ Niǎo but still decides to join in when knowledge of the ancient sword in the centre of concern is of interest for her. And plenty of other circumstances, screenwriter Gen Urobuchi playfully undercutting expectations - one of the best [Spoiler alert] involves the serial killer Screaming Phoenix being a figure the heroes are forced to work with, when he kills Guǐ Niǎo's master, the stereotypical old and wise martial artist, easily and refuses to give the magical flute required for their task back. [Spoiler Ends].

This is plenty to work with, even when the story's a simple one where they have to try to work together, get to the main villain Miè Tiān Hái's skull lair past three obstacles - a landscape of undead, a stone golem and a labyrinth of death. Unfortunately screenwriter Urobuchi, one of the few that have developed named recognition for anime fans, was on an off-day for me with this series. This review will be controversial, as many liked the series, but Thunderbolt Fantasy suffers from Urobuchi's taste for plot twists in this particular case undercutting all the ripe, potential adventure and suspense this initial plot suggested. He likes plot twists a lot, and when he succeeds, he pens Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011) [Reviewed here], which was a constant gut punch and bleak take on the magical girl trope, but one with compelling storytelling and an emotional devastation behind every plot point, making all of them worthy of inclusion. Unfortunately the creative decisions completely undermine expectations in ways that fail.

From http://www.bostonbastardbrigade.com/wordpress/wp-content/
uploads/2016/08/Thunderbolt-Fantasy-2.jpg

Characters promoted heavily in the opening credits, in fights more elaborate the show, die quickly on both sides and abruptly. Once or twice would be okay, but it happens a lot robbing a lot of great action scenes, strange to say as someone normally interested in drama. Many don't get as much detail of them when that would've helped the dramatic context grow, or are not given enough time to. In terms of the plot, obstacles in the heroes' quest like the rock golem are used in funny ways, others like the aforementioned labyrinth of nightmares are completely brushed aside and not used. The show eventually feels rushed when it gets to the latter half, not feeding off its potential plotting fully, the ending falling onto a generic demon god whose existence becomes an actual punch line. And its clichéd. As much as this is embracing tropes of wuxia, many don't feel like the right ones appropriate for this genre but from Urobuchi himself.

Ultimately, this emphasises that even though I view animation with such high admiration for the hard work behind them even over live action productions, there is a difference between being able to appreciate the good work even over ridiculous content and when a product becomes so flawed you are distracted from these artistic virtues. Even when thrown about as they are, the puppets deserve better than what happened. The same is for the music; I didn't like the opening credit theme by T.M.Revolution, but the score by Hiroyuki Sawanois eclectic and constantly inspired, deserving more than the clichéd materials here. When Thunderbolt Fantasy comes off as a predictable action fantasy, it feels like a waste of something even more significant as these glove puppets are works of art. It feels worst especially as the storytelling, which is the sole crippling flaw, does detract from the visuals, which makes it difficult to have pleasure in said aesthetics as well.

From http://www.jaydotdee.com/poptardsgo/wp-content/
uploads/2016/11/thunderbolt-fantasy-73.jpg

======

1) One, Star Fleet (aka. X-Bomber) (1980), which is inspired by a Go Nagai manga  is a prominent example worthy of being covered.

#68: Batman - Gotham Knight (2008)

From https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2I
0YTFjOTUtMWYzNC00ZTgyLTk2NWEtMmE3N2VlYj
EwN2JlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTAyODkwOQ@@._V1_.jpg

Directors: Various

Screenplays: Various

Based on the comic book character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger

Voice Cast: Various

Viewed in English Dub

Synopsis: An anthology - commissioning four acclaimed animation studios from Japan (Studio 4°C, Madhouse, Bee Train and Production I.G) - to tackle the legendary comic book character Batman.

Finally seeing Gotham Knight after all these years, even my enjoyment of it as is has to be tempered by the fact that it not only did it not fully exceed the expectations I had back when it was first being talked of as a project but also, to bastardise Hunter S. Thompson, this was where the wave broke for "cool" anime being a big trend in the West in the early 2000s, something we are waiting to come back for still slowly. This is particularly as, after Batman: Gotham Knight, there have been many attempts at adapting Western properties into anime, which you'd expect to have some notice, but I seriously doubt have made an impact.

The wave rose around the early 2000s with many examples - Cowboy Bebop (1998-9) being a hit in the West, Daft Punk taking inspiration from Leiji Matsumoto for Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003), Production I.G. being commissioned to animate a flashback sequence in Kill Bill Vo. 1 (2003) , just to name a few. But the most pertinent in this case  for a comparison was The Animatrix (2003). Say what you want for those sequels, which killed the franchise, but just beforehand when people were first excited about them someone had the inspired idea to get famous animation directors, not all of them Japanese but most of them, and have them direct shorts which could be their own ideas or even based on ideas from the Wachowskis themselves, fully involved as anime fans who were inspired for The Matrix franchise itself. It turned out a great idea because not only was the anthology seen as a success, but people like myself have fond memories of it still to this day. So logically, adapting Western material should equal success, yes?

Well, heard of the Supernatural anime, based on the famous American show? The Dragon Age, Halo and Mass Effect adaptations? Maybe, but are they seen as actually being good? Did you even realise Marvel had four series commissioned on Iron Man, Wolverine, the X-Men and Blade? Are you sure you know they exist, and why aren't they available in countries like the United Kingdom on DVD considering Marvel Studio films do so well here as well as in the States? I sense, with Spider senses tingling, Batman: Gotham Knight merely being another animated DC work, rather than an Animatrix, was a bad omen of this...

From https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XOJS-nCkXCY/maxresdefault.jpg

Have I Got a Story for You

Director: Shōjirō Nishimi (For Studio 4°C)

Screenplay by Josh Olson

Voice Cast: Kevin Conroy as Batman, Scott Menville as B-Devil, Corey Padnos as Porkchop, Crystal Scales as Meesh, Alanna Ubach as Dander

Noticeably unlike The Animatrix, where it emphasised huge names like Shinichiro Watanabe and Yoshiaki Kawajiri were involved, virtually little is talked about of the creators of these segments on the final version of Gotham Knight. The directors are obscure and its instead the studios themselves chosen who have recognition, based on scripts all by Western writers and meant to exist in the same world as the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, set after Batman Begins (2005) and just before The Dark Knight (2008). If anything the anthology being more studio driven is interesting, especially as Studio 4°C probably got the best out of this project, their segments the best and starting the anthology off on a high note here. Following four teenage skaters spinning tales of Batman, describing him between a shape shifting shadow to a literal bat creature, it very much follows the studio, known for being independent and unconventional, having their distinct aesthetic, where everything is malleable and rich in colour, not to mention off-model character animation here.

Immediately, whilst the project altogether misses this point a little, the idea of Batman being given to various anime studios isn't absurd. The character's lasting impact since his creation in 1940s, for myself, has partially been, but of great importance, because he can be adapted into any tone, be it Adam West or Christian Bale. (This isn't the first time Batman has been interpreted by a Japanese creator, and certainly not the last, either as Jiro Kuwata worked on a Batman manga during a craze for the Adam West series in Japan between April 1966 to May 1967). And this is apt as Have I Got a Story for You is entirely about various different versions of Batman being shown, all versions which have been depicted in other stories or the villain Manbat effectively in one case. In fact there's an added sense of metatextuality as screenwriter Josh Olson openly admits his premise can be traced all the way back to a 1973 Frank Robbins penned comic called The Batman Nobody Knows, which was adapted for the animated series The New Batman Adventures (1997-9). This context, far from undermining the script, just adds to this nice commentary on Batman being one of the only American comic characters who has been able to evolve and change with ease for any genre and style, appropriate as the character is a superhero who yet came from a film noir and pulp era of pop culture originally and has kept, due to his plasticity and compelling back-story, being arguably the most iconic of all superheroes ever drawn.

From http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/dcn-wp/wp-content/
uploads/2017/07/18172413/czQkRBzV.jpg

Crossfire

Director: Futoshi Higashide (For Production I.G)

Written by Greg Rucka

Voice Cast: Kevin Conroy as Batman, Jim Meskimen as James Gordon, Ana Ortiz as Anna Ramirez, Corey Burton as Yuri Dimitrov, Gary Dourdan as Crispus Allen, Rob Paulsen as Sal Maroni

In comparison, Production I.G.'s entry is more pedestrian, following two minor characters part of the Gotham Police both caught between warring Italian and Russian gangs. The issue with Crossfire, in terms of a plot beyond this, is that it's a necessary chunk of the whole project but one for a studio known for famous work like Ghost in the Shell (1995) that is the least dramatically invested work of all the segments. This is sad as, from this point on, one of the best aspects of the entire anthology starts to begin, the segments in non-chronologically order actually build a narrative with characters and plot points spilling over to other segments in spite of being aesthetically different from each other, but that Crossfire is the only segment the studio gets to animated in the entire anthology. Shame that, whilst Crossfire is an interesting action pieces, its merely a pretty looking action piece when every other one has a dramatic or aesthetic quirk of greater interest.

From http://www.theicecave.org/damage_control/multimedia/batmangkpic3.png

Field Test

Director: Hiroshi Morioka (For Bee Train)

Written by Jordan Goldberg

Voice Cast: Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Corey Burton as Yuri Dimitrov, Ronald Marshall, Will Friedle as Anton, George Newbern as Guido, Rob Paulsen as Sal Maroni, Kevin Michael Richardson as Lucius Fox

Returning back to the Russian and Italian gangs of the previous segment, Field Test weaves multiple plot strands over the segments with Bruce Wayne and the character of Lucius Fox, the man behind his tech in the Nolan films, field testing a method of bullet proof armour only to emphasis Wayne's moral code. This arguably is the most divisive looking of all the segments, which might be strange considering the others can have very exaggerated, cartoonish styles, but in terms of how Bruce Wayne is depiction. After Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (1989), one of the most artistically bold and acclaimed of the franchise, nothing is strange unless you decided, as here, to have a Bishōnen Bruce Wayne who looks nineteen. Bishōnen, defined as a young and elegant male character, is popular in anime and fits perfectly with the idea of Wayne as the young playboy. I think for myself why it's the least conventional choice is because, in another inspired idea, the production has the most famous and beloved voice actor for Batman in animated series, Kevin Conroy, voice the character in all the segments, which is startling as even back in the nineties when he became famous for the role, I remember him sounding like an adult, and here as a much older man, I still picture his Bruce Wayne as a slightly more mature figure in his thirties, not nineteen year old looking Wayne. A minor comment, not even a criticism, just amusing when this, not the more unconventional looking depictions of Batman, raises the most eyebrows from fans.

Anyway, after that ridiculously long tangent, here the segment's of interest for the story. Bee Train (aka. Bee Train Productions) are a company known for critically divisive action anime like Noir (2001) or Madlax (2004), so I had apprehension with little context for their work. Working with their bread and butter here, they do well, though ultimately the tug-and-pull of Gotham Knight, a virtue as much as a flaw, is that you can feel this work rigidly put together per segment with each anime studio having to work with what they had already been provided with. It doesn't allow breathing room in terms of writing the scripts so Bee Train merely had to do what was perfunctory here.

From https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tKtqdv0lTQE/maxresdefault.jpg

In Darkness Dwells

Director: Yasuhiro Aoki (For Madhouse)

Written by David S. Goyer

Voice Cast: Kevin Conroy as Batman, Gary Dourdan as Crispus Allen, Jim Meskimen as James Gordon, Ana Ortiz as Anna Ramirez, Frank Welker as Killer Croc, Corey Burton as The Scarecrow

Instead wiggle room is to be found with the better segments in terms of art style and appearance, to which the first entry by Madhouse finds greater breathing room by having a very exaggerated and even at times grotesque style. What is a generic plot, following on from Batman Begins (2005) with the Scarecrow villain with Killer Croc added on the side, gets meat to its bones with a very cartoonish atmospheric style, all with a sense of the gothic by way of the type of art found in the Superflat aesthetic. Madhouse are a legendary studio behind the likes of Ninja Scroll (1993) to Perfect Blue (1997), and they always get the job done in terms of handsomely animated work.

And that's not to dismiss the script either. Noticeable this is the one script by David S. Goyer, one of the collaborators on the Christopher Nolan films, and whilst this does stretch the realism of that series with Killer Croc, even in lieu here of being a man with a rare skin disease who was experimented on would still be an extreme if he had made it into the actual films, it's one of the grittiest of the segments. Certainly the darkest, The Scarecrow now targeting and murdering Christian priests and developing his own cult of nihilistic fear in the sewers of Gotham, compelling for a story even for a short. In fact that argubly makes this border on horror, the kind of genre bending that anime has always been rewarding with. If anything it actually makes, from memories of The Dark Knight, that sequel slightly disappoint in how the character was merely a cameo. Heath Ledger's The Joker is a part we talk of it nowadays, but imagine if Cillian Murphy was allowed to continue on, moving the Scarecrow away from a " Worzel Gummidge" figure to something legitimately dangerous side-by-side with Ledger? Armchair re-writing but, unfortunately, comic book films do have a villain of the week mentality to them in many cases, making this follow-on here actually necessary for the film's plot line too as well as entertaining.

From https://i1.wp.com/www.bateszi.me/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/
vlcsnap-1060662.jpg?resize=500%2C273

Working Through Pain

Director: Toshiyuki Kubooka (For Studio 4°C)

Written by Brian Azzarello

Voice Cast: Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne / Batman, David McCallum as Alfred Pennyworth, Parminder Nagra as Cassandra

If Studio 4°C were lucky enough to have the best two segments, it's because not only do they bring their strong aesthetic game but had the most interesting scripts to work with. Batman as a character is inherently flexible in any genre and story. In this case, bookmarked with the character trying to crawl out of a sewer with a gunshot wound to the stomach, this is a back-story tale where his failed attempt to convince a Fakir in India to teach him methods to overcome pain leads him to Cassandra, an Indian woman who posed as a boy to learn those same techniques only to lead to her being ostracised as a witch as a cost. Voiced by Parminder Nagra, who some will know from the British film Bend It Like Beckham (2002), the short's arguably the best as, even if she exists as a character in this one short, you have a fully developed figure and narrative, a short worthy of canon as a Batman tale even if the others weren't. This has emotional weight to it as, in spite of Batman's belief of fighting back, that ultimately proves an example of his flaws morally as part of his virtues. The short, alongside looking great, also as an unexpected artistic weight as the ending to the current day aspect has a metaphorical, even expressionist, tone to it which has still resonatea with me. In fact because of that ending, and Working Through Pain's qualities in general, this could be the one short that makes revisiting Batman: Gotham Knight worthy as a Batman work.

From https://entertainmentnow.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/
batmangothamknight-s6-ds_martini-502.jpg

Deadshot

Director: Jong-Sik Nam (and Yoshiaki Kawajiri?) (For Madhouse)

Written by Alan Burnett

Voice Cast: Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Gary Dourdan as Crispus Allen, Jim Meskimen as James Gordon / Floyd Lawton / Deadshot, David McCallum as Alfred Pennyworth, Jason Marsden as Thomas Wayne, Doctor

In contrast, the finale of Gotham Knight is an action piece introducing the titular villain from the comics, an assassin who is so insanely accurate he can, as seen here, hit a wasp with a cocktail stick with ease. There's however a noticeable controversy that, for those who've watched certain titles, there is a very idiosyncratic but realistic character design here that bare the mark of Yoshiaki Kawajiri, a director permanently employed at Madhouse, the studio behind this short. Kawajiri's time from this period on, making his name as a director in the West with the likes of Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000), is actually sad. Whilst he made very simple plotted action tales for most of his career, he is mistakenly an incredible character designer and animator when working with his own or other people's work. Around this time was his last directorial feature, an adaptation of a Western property called Highlander: Search for Vengeance (2007) that was severely compromised and not held up beyond being a guilty pleasure. Even a project like Ninja Scroll 2 cannot even get off the ground in the 2010s despite that original film, back in the nineties, being such a hit in the West. I vividly remember Kawajiri having involvement in Deadshot, only to have his name completely erased. The character designs are too close to his own that only a really good mimicry could suggest otherwise, a simple action story to close that sadly shows in the production back-story how Gotham Knight was sadly a compromise on the anime studios rather than an exciting project that succeeded.

Even as a fun anthology, with two great segments, that fact comes to mind in the end, as this should've been a better production. Even if DC Comics has numerous animated productions, crossing the character with Japanese anime should be by all rights a splendid idea. Hell Warner Brothers even returned to the idea with Batman Ninja (2018), letting an anime studio send the character and others to Feudal Japan. The original attempt, Gotham Knight, has moments but it's a compromised anthology whose flaws are as visible as the good parts.

#67: Princess Tutu (2002-3)

From https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/crop900x350/
video/category/410/key_art_princess_tutu.jpg

Director: Junichi Sato (Chief Director), Shogo Koumoto (Series Director)

Screenplay: Chiaki J. Konaka, Mamiko Ikeda, Michiko Yokote, Rika Nakase, Takuya Satō

Voice Actors: Nanae Katou as Duck/Princess Tutu, Nana Mizuki as Rue, Naoki Yanagi as Mythos, Takahiro Sakurai as Fakir, Akiko Hiramatsu as Edel, Erino Hazuki as Uzura, Kyōko Kishida as The Narrator, Noboru Mitani as Drosselmeyer, Sachi Matsumoto as Pike

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

Synopsis: In a fairytale town, a storywriter named Drosselmeyer, even after death, strives forward to complete the tale of the Prince and the Crow in real life. The original story, so far, had the evil crow defeated by at the cost of the Prince sacrificing his heart, shattering it into pieces and as a result losing his emotions. Becoming the emotionless Mythos, he is warded around the ballet school by Fakir, a very protective confidant, and Rue, the girl who loves him. There is also Duck, a literal duck Drosselmeyer turned into a girl with a magical necklace, one which also allows her to become Princess Tutu, a magical figure with the sole intention of recapture all of Mythos' heart shards for him.

The best way to describe Princess Tutu? Magical. An obvious comment but in awareness that head writer of the two season series Michiko Yokote first came up with her premise of a fairy tale, a tribute to ballet with a girl who was once a duck, long before the series finally came to be in 2002. Encompassing ballet and fairytales, it explicitly references countless examples of both in plot and music, even referencing material outside of them like A Midnight Summer's Dream. Even Drosselmeyer, the mysterious old man beyond death living in a clockwork filled netherworld, is named after a character in the Nutcracker. As a result, its innately a commentary on itself, of these characters and this material because of all these reference, as much as it is  a sweet fantasy series of the age and gender of the viewer. Thankfully, ultimately why Princess Tutu is an underrated gem from the 2000s which deserves wider recognition, what could've gone up its own navel with trite meta commentary is more interesting than that. Instead it's a proper fairytale heard many times before, only the crux being a tale of when these characters realise their positions in the story and overcoming the archetypes they were initially written as.

From http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KligJQXnjVs/VLL7vuq8THI/
AAAAAAAACDY/KBBisBJ-Ots/s1600/tAG_1097.jpg

Bright, elegant and using very recognisable classical pieces -  segments from Swan Lake appear in most of the episodes especially as Duck becomes a white swan in the opening credit sequence for every episode - it's also effectively a magical girl show. A subgenre which began with Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Sally the Witch, where (stereotypically) a young girl gains the abilities to transform into a magical figure, most well known even outside anime fandom through the Sailor Moon franchise. This never becomes a critique of magical girls - darker examples of that include Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011) - instead merely a catalyst for the plot. Where, instead, a knight finds himself questioning his position to weld a sword, the villains are not doing a great job and have an existential crisis, and Duck, a squawky klutz in human form, an angelic dancer as Princess Tutu, finds herself conflicted by Mythos regaining his heart shards, the task fraught with him suffering from newly acquired emotions and the other players in Drosselmeyer's story interacting with her.

Whilst it does have the look of a 2000s production, including notable compute effects, its helped considerably by the colourful, openly fantastical world which evokes European culture right down to German translations of the episode titles. Openly fantastical too, as members of the cast are also animals. Humanoid hippo students with birds dressed and talking like schoolgirls. And Mr. Cat, one of the funniest side characters whose portrayal by Yasunori Matsumoto is above the god-awful attempt in the English dub completely, the ballet teacher and anthropomorphised cat who threatens every female student with marriage. It never becomes weird in an abstract way, honestly, but that doesn't matter. Instead everything feels appropriate for what a fairytale is, where the unpredictable happens but in a way logical to its own world.

From https://ibdp.videovore.com/video/50081810?size=600x400

Where it gets more unconventional is as much through the split between its two seasons. The first is very straight forward and could be a great series in its own right with a conclusion. After is where things become much more interesting. Noticeable, the other half was originally split into fifteen minute episodes before they were recreated for the West by ADV Films as regular twenty minute plus episodes. They're where the characters really begin to question and undercut the storytelling tropes being pushed upon them. That the writer is a character in the story, Drosselmeyer a Greek chorus in himself and already established as a bastard in the first season, desiring a tragedy with his cast, immediately raises the stakes. When characters don't follow his plans, due to being emotional complex people, the plan he has falls off the rails. The mix of drama, comedy and occasional moments of grim consequences is sustained throughout both halves but the later half gets more esoteric. When one character briefly turns into a tree, this is definitely the closest the series as a whole gets to be strange.

Especially when they hired Chiaki J. Konaka, one of my favourite screenwriters known for his unconventional storytelling, where it gets at its strangest, with puppets dancing and wormholes into the clockwork netherworld, my beloved screenwriter's touch to be found. If anything Princess Tutu proved that, whilst a distinct voice in the director's seat is still important, writers for individual episodes are as much guides for the show's personality as I learnt with this series. In general the project, whilst having to explain a lot more than usually for a show like this due to being a series for an audience of all ages, does a lot of heavy lifting perfectly, particularly  as it does have "situation of the week" style stories for single episodes, having to tie up a narrative with characters only appearing in that one story and make their contributions justifiable. In fact what I presumed, early into the second season, would dangerously become tiring actually gets to the point of the exasperation the villains eventually have with themselves as well as their task. Somehow a narcissitic lothario who feels he cannot love as many women as he'd want and has his man servant gore him with bulls continually, another of the funniest characters of the series despite being in one episode only, manages to have a vital point to him in the story of Rue, the secondary female character who's isolation away from Mythos due to Princess Tutu plays to the tragedy of her own life. This broad, conventional storytelling technique of a short story per episode is actually used in clever ways as a result, little moments having a lot of use from even its most comedic characters - one of the best little moments, from a Konaka scripted episode, has a joke of Mr. Cat trying to ward away a goat woman who likes him help two characters in their series long concerns by overhearing him at the right moment, examples like this bound to grow in rewarding upon rewatching Princess Tutu multiple times.

From https://nerdloveshop.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/tutu11.png?w=663

I also learnt more so with Princess Tutu an even greater appreciation of Japanese voice actors.  Snippets of the late ADV Film's English dub causes me to wonder how my younger self could stand them, a over- sugared recreation of stereotypical anime voices that feeling hollow from what I heard. Everyone in the Japanese dub however feels natural in their roles. Nanae Katou as Duck in particular is perfect, right down to a mallard's squawk to her voice. In a series like this, which is playful and still has humour even into its last episodes when the story gets serious, where it is a family friendly fairytale, there's a lot to admire in hearing characters who are taken serious, even the comedic ones having moments of seriousness to admire them. (And anyway, even that humour's to be loved, characters like Duck's best friend Pike (Sachi Matsumoto) and Lilie (Yuri Shiratori) so easy to make awful if they are played too broadly, more so when Lilie's running gag is that she is so enthusiastic about Duck constantly failing to a fetishishtic degree.)

So whilst not abstract, right from its beginning to an ending that is both bitter sweet but also joyful, Princess Tutu triumphs by being very unconventional. Where it goes to in the second half leads to so many curveballs that, as an anime series should, it feels like you've ended up in an entirely different series from the first episodes and it was built up to fully. And especially as a story that is both a fairytale children could watch, but also is a tribute to fairytales and ballet for adults to learn from, it means a lot. In the former, it's a great story. In the later, Princess Tutu also succeeded for me by introducing this particular viewer to references I hadn't known of. Each episode starts with a female narrator using an existing story, from those you'd recognise to obscurer choices like Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes being twisted into unconventional direction mid-narration. As someone with no knowledge of ballet, its grown my interest considerably. If anything the success, even if as a cult series, of Princess Tutu must've be a wonderful experience for head writer Michiko Yokote and the entire production staff.

From https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/princesstutu/images/3/
38/Duck.png/revision/latest?cb=20120624205833