101 to #150 Retrospective [Part 6]: Best TV Series and Best Theatrical Film

Best TV Series:

5) Now it might surprise you the reader that Virtual-San Looking (2019) is on this list, but honestly, whilst I did not catch most of the humour and this is likely to be a title lost in time once it leaves Crunchyroll streaming, it was a fascinating piece of culture to have sat through. There is many shows about characters just talking - one which only had one mention for a negative, Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono (2013), managed to have three seasons which I covered but have faded in memory. Many are meant to just be for light humour to unwind with (and accidentally only cover the second season of like Anitore XX). Virtual-San, with the bigger danger that it was not a micro-series, but full twenty plus minute episodes, managed however to both sincere and charming even in its flaws, and also magnificently weird even without the pop culture managing to pass over my head. As a snapshot of a trend which has not crossed over into the West, as much of the entertainment was seeing both outsiders to the medium, virtual YouTubers, putting on a show but for series length television, and the idiosyncrasies of watching what was never meant to be a wide reaching show.

4) On a more logical choice, I feel however that I like to have all three potential candidates share the fourth spot for various reasons, all in my first proper steps into the giant robot genre, and all three deserving this spot. They also make a fascinating trio representing a time period where, over the Millennium, the giant robot genre had to change to keep as substantial genre. Dai Guard (1999-2000), an early digital animated production and before director Seiji Mizushima made his hit Full Metal Alchemist (2003), negates any concern to change the template on this long existing genre, instead creating a unique premise of what would happen in regular white collar employees in an office had to operate a giant robot. Treating the tropes as a disaster story, not a disaster film but how fire station staff or a rescue team at an actual disaster would have to intervene, through the lens of giant robots fighting giant monsters is a rewarding story to tell. It has its flaws (and a clip show episode) but succeeds with the premise.

Gravion and its sequel series Zwei (2002 and 2004) is a pure throwback to the old giant robot tropes from Masami Obari, a veteran mecha designer. This two series story has one significant issue that, to cater to a wider audience, it had to front load so much fan service (skimpy costumes, big busts, maids, some creepier content) that it can put viewers off. It also happens to still be a compelling giant robot show which, paradoxically, has a larger female cast because of that need for fan service, but all whilst still treating them all as competent and with dramas for themselves. So, as a result, in spite of itself, its the version of the giant robot show from the burning passion, Go Nagai era of the genre. The throwback with its bombastic JAM Project songs, of not being remotely scientifically realistic (unlike Dai Guard which tries to for great dramatic weight) but piling on the melodrama for the second season to win me over.

Finally, there is Gun X Sword (2005), from the era where I had gotten into anime but one of the many titles from the time, released over here in the United Kingdom, I never actually got around to until now. Fully invested in the new digitally assisted anime era, from a time still where (like the other two) twenty plus episode seasons were more common, and following how a lot of anime shows were genre cocktails by having all manner of pieces mashed together here. In this case, a sci-fi western where the revenging man with no name has a giant robot he can command from a satellite, but also because of the show being a comedy is a homeless vagrant who smears all the condiments on his meals. Yet this show, with its perfect balance, manages to make this still dramatically compelling and also fun, as it wisely uses its length to its advantage, a story of two halves between a romp searching for the villain who slighted him, with a variety of characters introduced, to the second where it pulls the rug out. When the road trip centres around a single spot in the second, a final conflict linking back to every character from the first half, it manages to succeed.

All three of the shows, flaws and all, were a perfect trio of obscurities which showed me how rich and diverse something of deceptively simple as a giant robot show, about giant robots fighting things, can still go on decades after its initial golden era for children's shows in the seventies. And considering how Gun X Sword had a cameo, with its cast and robots, in the videogame Super Robot Wars t alongside more famous titles, these shows have a rabid diehard fan base who remember them, so all three could (fingers cross) get re-releases on streaming and maybe even physical media again.

3) Sarazanmai (2019) marked the return of Kunihiko Ikuhara and a successful run in the 2010s. Beforehand, he had vanished from anime almost entirely after Adolescence of Utena in 1999, and it seems a wonderful experience for me, in terms of a time capsule, to have first learnt of him when he came back to the director's seat after a decade's absence. I learnt of him work, and admired it, when he came back with Mawaru Penguindrum (2011), grew further into my passion for anime by the time of Yurikuma Arashi (2015), and for Sarazanmai, still without a UK physical release sadly, the kind of eclectic anime viewer and purveyor of obscurities that could admire it fully. Both how, whilst the weakest of the three, this is still a gem from him, and that also the inherent oddness of the premise also wins me over. Who wouldn't want a musical fantasy action show which also has emotion and, tackling male protagonists for the first time in his career properly, has Ikuhara waving the LGBT whilst also getting into his fascinating ideas on modern life and communication. In an era where Masaaki Yuasa went from an obscure figure who was barely known in the West, but now has almost all his work available and is constantly directing output, I can see with hope that, unless Ikuhara likes to think of his projects, that whatever he does in the future, with co-director Nobuyuki Takeuchi here and studio MAPPA or not, still will be brimming with this level of creativity and be more likely to be funded.

2) Another figure came out of the 2010s as a king was Hiroyuki Imaishi, who really took advantage of the last ten years. Leaving studio Gainax, who have tragically faded into obscurity, founding Trigger who, for every title that has not necessarily hit it out of the park, is still a big studio, all whilst Imaishi himself has never really slouched. Even Space Patrol Lulico (2016), which I covered a long time ago, was just a victory lap which was for fun. Beginning the 2010s though, with what also feels like a last triumph for Gainax, he began his first productive year of the new decade with a bang, with the divisive but unique Panty & Stockings with Garterbelt (2010).

It is an acquired taste, both because it is openly a tribute to the type of American animation I myself was growing up with, the Cartoon Network animation of the late nineties and early 2000s, but is also openly profane, full of crude humour and a comical amount of English cursing. Wishing to push what was acceptable, Imaishi and the production however did something inspired in that a) their tribute to Western animation style led to them sacrificing detail for more fluid animation, drastically shifting the focus to some incredible sequences, and b) that everyone from the musicians composing the score to the animators who blow up hand sculpted versions of the ghosts never got predictable, having fun but pushing themselves. It is still such a fun, unpredictable and at times bizarre gem as a result.

1) But, fittingly it goes to a show that, when I first had gotten into anime, was a programme I initially did not like, only to track down on (once second hand and long out of print) DVDs and slowly grow fonder of. Serial Experiments Lain (1998) is an older title, over two decades old now, which is still available in the United Kingdom and it has grown for me considerably. Honestly, just go to the review, and it is explained what grew for me fully.

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Best Theatrical Feature:

Three honourable mentions come first. Knowing how deeply flawed it is, I cannot include X - The Movie (1996) but I have a love for the film in spite of this. Tekkonkinkreet (2006) is an obscurer gem, an important one knowing Michael Arias achieved a historically important moment in being the first gaijin (non-Japanese] anime director, making this colourful and idiosyncratic production with Studio 4°C. Also an entry you would find in the dictionary to define "idiosyncratic" would be The Burning Buddha Man (2013), with its distorted and strange world filled with paper cut out characters, bookmarked by live action sequences and using real liquids (fake blood, fake tears), already a compelling independent piece of animation, painstakingly put together and crafted with its director's distinct vision.

5) Beginning the list, and sadly not a title not really discussed a great deal until now, is Project A-Ko (1986), whose history including theatrical releases in Japan and France allows it on the list. Originally meant to be hentai, this became instead on a decision of the creators a playful, action packed approximation of eighties anime, both in its creativity and all the references to has. From its technical quality to its sense of fun, it is still highly regarded in the modern day for good reason, a rare case of indulgence which is artistically satisfying.

4) The Strange Case of Hana & Alice (2015) sits as a fascinating curiosity. A prequel to a live action film, Hana and Alice (2004), made by the same director Shunji Iwai but negotiating around the fact his returning leads Yū Aoi and Anne Suzuki, originally playing teenagers, would have aged over ten years adults by making the new movie a rotoscope animated production. And, without the original context, it is still a sweet and utterly enjoyable gem, a mystery story with unfolds and undercuts the mystery to reveal warmth, all whilst the art style itself is distinct and having justifiable weight rather than to have made this story as live action.

3) Pom Poko (1994) was the first Studio Ghibli title covered, and is obscurer even in their canon, entirely because Isao Takahata's work for the animation studio, in contrast to Hayao Miyazaki's, was already more esoteric and at times only possible to appreciate as an adult. Pom Poko is a fun film at times, but between its complex take on an environmental message, despite being obviously pro-environment, as well as a tribute to Japanese folklore, it always kept me enwrapped by where the story was going, never going for the obvious solution to this story. That the ending does not turn out how it usually does in Western storytelling adds a greater sense of weight, never going for an easy answer even in a film that  is completely accessible.

2) Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985) has been talked of a lot in this series, and with good reason as an under seen and unique theatrical release that, whilst meant to be suitable for families, is also tackling death and existentialism with a depth that contrasts this. It was a film I had wanted to see for years, and finally able to, it did live up to the experience fully.

1) Also covered a great deal so far, and another film I have wanted to see for many years, the winner is Adolescence of Utena (1999). It was a film if you were just talking about the first two-thirds that would have not qualified as a great film; just a fascinating and surreal production instead trying to condense a narrative based on a thirty plus episode television series. The final third, including the unexpected change of pace for the ending, achieves so much in what is unexpected, what is symbolically and emotionally powerful, and how incredibly accomplished it is as animation that this became a special viewing experience to finally see.

 

And with that, so ends the second season, and roll forth reviews #151 to #200.

#101 to #150 Retrospective [Part 5]: Best Production and Best OVA/ONA/Short

Best Production

For me, the importance here is both best quality, but also distinction in aesthetic and creativity. So with that in mind there are many honourable mentions. Serial Experiments Lain, Key the Metal Idol, and Tekkonkinkreet are all worthy mentions for their own idiosyncratic productions. The Case of Hana and Alice (2015) was fascinating as it was actually a rotoscope production, the animation drawn over the filmed footage which created its own unique look. The Burning Buddha Man (2013) in contrast, animated by one man, was created using cut out paper figures and sets, worthy for its own distinct aesthetic. Even Gundam Reconguista in G (2014-5), despite the story and characterisation being a mess, has to be mentioned as Sunrise, as a studio able to show how seriously they take their work, lovingly put together a giant robot sci-fi story where every character design and machine onscreen, even the locations, are distinct and of a high production quality.

5) Sarazanmai (2019) begins the list with emphasis on how a bold visual look alongside production quality is of an essence. Kunihiko Ikuhara, co-directing with Nobuyuki Takeuchi, has a very distinct style especially when he returned to animation in the 2010s of bold visual colours, and especially an emphasis on symbolism and very distinct pop-surrealist aesthetic to his productions. It is for his both messages, and here to give Amazon a kicking, but using visual signals to tell the story with effortlessness. The fact that he uses recycled footage, a common aspect from his career, becomes part of the rhythm and style of his work, alongside the production staff being on top form here, so that never becomes an issue.

4) X - The Movie (1996), Rintaro's CLAMP adaptation, is deeply flawed. It is a title in a strange position, as the original manga was never finished, and the only other adaptation, for television and also having to create its own ending, was the only series by Yoshiaki Kawajiri of all people. X - The Movie however is a thing of beauty, a dark Gothic work which is made at the pinnacle of theatrical animation, violent and macabre in juxtaposition with its urban metropolis setting. In spite of so many flaws, there are moments in this in cinematic language alongside the art which are stunning to still witness.

3) Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985) is ironically also an adaptation of an unfinished text, though one which survived with a semblance of an ending. A fantasy about an intergalactic train that [spoiler] carries the dead and the supernatural, the issue with adapting this text is how; to which at first the production struck upon the curious idea of making most of the characters humanoid cats, becoming an iconic aspect of the film. Beyond this, whilst I have praised Rintaro's film, the eighties was when there was so much money available for the animation industry, many elaborate productions like this one could come to exist, this a thing of beauty. The material itself allows for many distinctions, from the scenarios to author Kenji Miyazawa's deliberate European interests including a fascination for Esperanto, but everyone who made the film paid perfect homage to the author's work with its quiet grace.

2) Fittingly on the list twice, Ikuhara has only made one theatrical film so far. When given the budget, he made Adolescence of Utena (1999), a gorgeous and surreal spectacle where his imagination was allowed to run. Literally, he builds a fairytale world, alongside the staff at studio J.C. Staff, of a school that constantly shifts in form, only to destroy it at the end in the midst of what even baffled the animators they would have to animate, a car chase that turns into one of the biggest and symbolically rich sequences in anime I have seen.

1) However, whilst a bit unfair to have the sole Studio Ghibli title covered so far take the top spot, there is a reason that studio has become an institution, and Isao Takahata's Pom Poko (1994), an obscure title from Ghibli, is raising the bar so high for anime covered in terms of production it really should have the nod. It is easy for any animation studio to lazily put together a work about an environmental message about raccoons - it is another, alongside the moral complexity at hand in this tale alongside its tributes to Japanese folklore, to make a film this visually vibrant and rich too, likely to have been as painstaking as every title given a nod. (Even Mars of Destruction (2005), on the opposite end of the scale in quality, probably took labour to create just to imagine how much longer this and any other highly regarded animated work took). Everything nominated is a winner, unique, so really any of these would have rightly earned this spot depending on the candidates.

 

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Best OVA/ONA/Short

3) It might be a controversial choice, but I did not cover a great deal that could qualify for this category last year, and Calamity of a Zombie Girl (2018) against a complete lack of expectations was a surprise pleasure. Goofy, nasty, peculiar and a lot of cheese, but the right kind of cheese that itched a desire for weird pulpy anime I have always had. Ever since second hand DVDs led me down the rabbit hole of Manga Entertainment's tackier past, or even the odder licensing choices regardless of tone, a Blu Ray release in 2020 in the United Kingdom for a title like this still took my interest.

Calamity is a throwback to older OVAs as, when it gets violent, you get actual internal organs drawn, but rather than be just a gross piece of work, it comes off more interesting by deliberately throwing off your moral compass on who to root for, and a lot of black comedy. Some of it is clearly deliberate, like someone having to super glue their head back on, and stuff that might have not been, like someone else having their arm ripped off but shrugging it off as they flee the scene with blood trailing them. It is an acquired taste, mainly for the art style, but inexplicably released in 2020 by Anime Limited, I hope they and other companies take this risk as, if any other odd titles like this are still being made and are actually of interest, I would be happy for more of them available in the United Kingdom.

2) Yuri Seijin Naoko-san (2010/2012), two OVAs for the price of one, are a weird but memorable duo. The first is six minutes of pure madness, the second, the length of a regular TV movie, is sedate and sweet even though it is tap dancing a really tasteless joke or two, like the main female alien being attracted to young girls, somehow managing to fall out of the other side positively because of how strange and whimsical it still is, right down to the group of young girls who hire themselves out just to appear on location in the background. Whether this premise could extend to a whole series, which would be fascinating as a what-if. Whilst entirely speculation without reading the source material, I would be enticed if one was made in the near future, abruptly appearing in the 2020s out of the blue.

1) But Key the Metal Idol (1994-7) has to take this award. An insanely ambitious project, what is actually a TV series length narrative told through the OVA medium, with the budget and lack of restrictions to tell a very idiosyncratic and emotional drama, starting from a robot girl who wants to become an idol singer to be able to still exist, only to become much darker and more abstract as the show continues. Its structure and release did cause problems, requiring two feature length final episodes, the first a possible moment that could put off viewers as it needs to deal with all the back-story and plot that was kept at arm's length deliberately before, but the final episode gets surreal, tragic with the death of a specific character, and became a discover for me. Availability is interesting and frustrating - Discotek have released this, and it's one of their few titles to be available on the British Crunchyroll stream, but it is an argument to figure out how on hell I can import anime titles from the States as it really won me over.

#101 to #150 Retrospective [Part 4]: "Guilty" Pleasures of the Year and Best Episodes

"Guilty" Pleasures of the Year

I feel no guilt for many of my tastes, at least for any on this list. There are titles however that have flaws, or even not highly regarded in the slightest, but fulfilled a pleasure for me. Three honourable mentions come to come. Gravion and Gravion Zwei (2002/2004) make up one great series, but the production felt it had to bank on something else to sell a giant robot show to the viewers of the early 2000s, including a castle of buxom maids (and unfortunately little girls too), which is a commercial decision that cannot be defended. (The irony that this leads to the cast mostly being female, and reliable figures, muddies this issue just as much). Amagami SS (2010), a unique spin on the romance story in which you follow six different versions of the tale from six different female characters as the girlfriends, has nothing problematic at all about it but does have an odd air to it due to this premise that cannot be ignored, alongside the fact the OVA bonus episodes failed and brought this issue up. And Lunar Legend Tsukihime (2003), which is an obscure Type-Moon adaptation which has major issues, significant issues, but also many little touches in spite of its generic horror-action story which won me over.

5) Evoking the horror genre, Calamity of a Zombie Girl (2018) was an ONA film which I came to with immensely low expectations, either getting an Island of Giant Insects (2020) or something very bland. Calamity... was much more entertaining and interesting prospect, a dash of the old lurid OVA era of gore and weirdness, only with a bit more unexpected (and likely deliberate) horror and many quirks, something I can appreciate.

4) In the Aftermath (1988), again, is a relic of peculiar context, a re-cut Americanised version of Angel's Egg (1985) which is meant to make more sense of the original art film, only to make even less sense. Contextually, we have never had Angel's Egg itself in the West on physical media, but In the Aftermath inexplicably has. At times it is utterly illogical and ludicrous just in some of the attempts at out-profounding a profound rumination on Oshii's own religious belief, once about to become a Catholic priest before he entered an animation industry and thus having a lot of baggage to un pack. It is however compelling. It is even at times eerie, both for its dreamlike nature, including the live action post apocalypse drama, and for the fact the original animation (especially in high definition) is still exceptional and unlike anything you could encounter.

3) The best way to despite my interest in Gundam Reconguista in G (2014) was that I willingly sacrificed my first ever Gundam work to watch this as the first. Reconguista in G, Yoshiyuki Tomino's attempt at a fun and lighter hearted take on the franchise, is one of the best produced titles I have covered for the last year, as Sunrise will drop the ball on their money maker over the years but put as much resources into each entry as they can, but good luck with the maddening (or pleasingly erratic) plotting and characterisation. For me, it was the latter, a gleefully mad odyssey without logic that I openly admit a perverse pleasure in unlike the other entries on this list.

2) Pupa (2014) is held as one of the worst series released in the 2010s, part of a fun of deliberately seeing a couple of notorious titles. Surprisingly none of them actually got on the Disappointing List - Arcade Fighter Fubuki (2002-3) is not talked about with the same level of infamy as the ones I did cover - as even Mars of Destruction (2005) was entertaining. Pupa, controversially, I will defend. Its biggest weakness is that, when it was originally meant to be regular length episodes, the produced nixed this for ones only a couple of minutes long, which excises so much potential context and layers. The premise however, whilst utterly gross, is too compelling even in this context to dismiss, of a deliberately unsettling incestuous cannibalistic relationship of a brother and sister. The little we get I found fascinating, even in its art style and aesthetic, leaving the fact it was still only minute long episodes the cause of this show being on this list.

1) Also crippled by a fatal production flaw, I confess a love still for X: The Movie (1996). Maybe it's expensive, or unloved, or the song by X-Japan, just before their original version was abruptly disbanded, adds a cost, but Rintaro's theatrical adaptation should be available again just for how gorgeous and moody the film is as animation. It looks incredible in the modern day as a production and, whilst a far more darker and violent take on the CLAMP manga by all accounts, it has a morbid beauty that is enrapturing. Tragically, they made the decision to adapt said CLAMP manga, which was unfinished at the time and would remain unfinished to the modern day with the likelihood it never will, into a film less than ninety minutes. It is still a dark and evocative piece, but obviously it has to get the award because that time crunch plays hell on the plotting.

 

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Best Episode

Sadly we have to include a dishonourable mention for a two part episode of Tesagure! Bukatsumono Spin-off Purupurun Sharumu to Asobou (2015), known technically as "Let's play with werewolves and yuri", but I have called the "Yuriwolf" episodes. From an alumni of the gdgd Fairies series, it involves the cast (in character) playing a game called "Werewolf" but with a yuri slant, part of that older series' tradition of letting the cast improvise on the fly around a silly scenario. The result is u-t-t-e-r-l-e-y tedious, and they even try to bribe the viewer with a bonus game that is a Japanese blu-ray exclusive.

5) The first good episode however helped a less than great series, LunarLegend Tsukihime, improve by stepping away from its generic horror action storyline for episode seven, "Blue Sin Mark". Entirely based around the cast going to a theme park, baring the one moment near the end where a corpse is left on a Ferris Wheel, the main conflict is when the male protagonist's sister and the female vampire/potential love interest are openly hostile to each other when they meet, whilst his school friends including another potential love interest are awkwardly there as this transpires. Eventually leading to a growth and secrets being revealed, it is a needed shot of banality that stands out greatly.

4) Gun X Sword (2005) had a few great episodes - possibly not the one about the matriarchal fortress where everyone still had to wear a bikini, even if it memorable - but I have to go for episode 6, "Light My Fire". Very early in the series, when it is still the first act of a genre masala, where a Western antihero in his wedding suit wanders a sci-fi frontier for revenge, ends out at a coastal town and puts up with a Bonnie and Clyde couple, in their transforming combat car, trying to take his giant robot when all he wants to do is actually eat. This is a great example of when a one off-story, especially for twenty plus episodes like this, can stand out.

3) Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (2010) has too many great episodes I could have chosen, from the music video to the finale. From the get-go with episode 1a and 1b, as like Cartoon Network shows I grew up with, the episode is split into two different stories, you get both sides of the show immediately, a perfect introduction provided for this series. Yes, the first half, about a poo ghost, is as appropriately gross to start with, but I am thinking specifically of the second half, "Death Race 2010", where the influence of Western animation and how its simpler look allows for movement immediately shows, following a high speed car chase with a literal speed demon. Combined with the fact that the music is already audibly exceptional, and the voice acting from the Japanese cast, and it's an exceptional piece.

2) Also a show with too many good moments, such as the one about why you should never anger the caretaker at any anime high school, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (2003) also has episodes usually split into two stories with exceptions, the second part of episode two, "A Fruitless Lunchtime", already winning me over already from the beginning. Following the leads having to dash from school to one of their homes to get study notes, than get back immediately, it has emotional bonding, as the male and female lead are seen clearly as friends and possibly with romantic feelings for each other, especially as these characters in the original Full Metal Panic have had time before in their history to know each other. There is also the perfect comedy deriving from very little which is exceptional, particularly one moment of a slow subtle change in attitude which is a testament to the animators as well. That it manages to have a cameo, or a parody, from an entirely different franchise, You're Under Arrest, just adds an amusing cherry to the cake.

1) But this award had to be for Himote House (2018) and the "Yuri Game of Life", episode 7 "A Journey Like a Prayer". Himote House had problems, a show that from another gdgd Fairies alumni which could have taken more consistency from the older, superior show. Yet from what is an amusing premise, playing The Game of Life whilst lovingly mocking yuri genre clichés, the comedy suddenly gets serious and pulls no punches in tackling the discrimination and treatment of LGBT women in Japanese culture. Even telling you this does not prepare for how effortlessly Himote House pulls this off. Just go find the episode and watch it.

#101 to #150 Retrospective [Part 3]: The Lovepon Award and Strangest Moments

The Lovepon Award for Voice Actor Commitment

One of these days, I hope to talk about the craft of voice acting more. Namely my hesitance stems from the face, through a language I do not know, because I am unsure yet whether I can gauge a great Japanese language performance fully yet. Sadly, whenever I have had only the English dub available, I have encountered many which were terrible or bland, hence why I became a "purist" and watched the Japanese language versions. That is not to say there have never been great English dubs, but the reason switched to the other side was never purism, but quality.

But, let us have one award, originally for an entirely different type of category when I joked of it for The Lost Village (2016), which is now an award for two halves. For those in voice acting who work so professionally with very dubious material, this shall be a reminder that voice acting in Japan and the West is still a job for pay, where I nod to those who still gave their best even with material of questionable origins. For those in voice acting as well, in great material, who yet have to stretch themselves to absurd lengths, a dexterity when even in a good anime you encounter bizarre content.

A) Commitment to the Dubious

3) And yet we will start with an English dub, despite my negative comments earlier, because Brad Bradford for Mr. Mystery in Arcade Fighter Fubuki (2002-3) was one of the few striking virtues, playing a masked hero and mentor to the main female character with all the exaggerated bombast you would hope for in such a character in a comedy. Yes, Mr. Mystery was sadly still fixated on her "passion panties", but we also had someone who acted like a theatre performer to the backseats, and had to be stoic as one of the few characters who, if he was hurt or jumped through a glass window, actually felt the pain and injuries. I have found English dubs, returning to them, excessively broad for me for the most part, with this an exception where, if you are going for this tone, a silly comedy is perfect for it.

2) Speaking of dubious, Ahegao W Peace Sensei from My Sister The Writer (2018) could have been a very transgressive and fascinating character, a female erotic artist whose tastes however are for material which is still very uncomfortable and difficult for many in terms of eroticised degradation and dark fantasies. However you can only think for actress Chinatsu Akasaki, for a show clearly catering for male heterosexual viewers. That as well as having a day job where you have to star in this incest romance, one line is literally her character saying "I like degrading rape porn" cosplaying in a bikini as casually as possible like regular human conversation. Bless Akasaki, even if that is uncomfortable for most viewers, the bubbliness of the performance, for a stereotypical big breasted and blonde character with an added lack of censorship in discussing fetishes and sex, nearly soften the experience.

1) But, the award stems from Lovepon from The Lost Village, a bizarre show where I am unsure whether it was intentionally a parody or the production drove its bus off the road immediately. The Crunchyroll comments section added so much perverse entertainment to my viewing, although the vitriol to one character, Lovepon, was so severe it might have led to this fascination with the character, even empathy for a fictional creation, and creating a gag blog post section here. Eventually revealed to be a very psychologically damaged teen girl, she is also however already visible deranged in a cartoonish way in the first episode, before the tour bus ever gets to the titular village, and has voice actress Ai Kakuma screaming "Execute!" over and over again per episode.

And Kakuma commits to this. This side of the imaginary award is a recognition that voice actors - like the animators - have to work and they have to continue regardless of the quality of the final creation. So this joke merely to amuse myself comes with empathy that helps grow my appreciation of Japanese animation much more.

 

b) Commitment to the Virtuous

3) When it comes to great work, any production from gdgd Fairies alumni usually means heavy improvisation and expecting the unexpected each week as a performer. For Himote House (2018), whilst it has major flaws, you have the female cast - Satomi Akesaka, Suzuko Mimori, Sumire Uesaka, Kaoru Mizuhara, Tae Hongou and Asuka Nishi as their talking cat Enishi - having to be on the ball for improvised sketches to acting out even a card game. Like gdgd Fairie, everyone looks a greater performer as a result, a great form of acting training just to be in these quirky micro series that became popular in the 2010s of characters just conversing about weird things.

2) The stereotypical tsundere, common in anime and manga, is the character (usually female) who is stand offing and cold, only to show a warmer side as they are comfortable with another character. In broader comedy, that can include beating the main male character up. It is a role that could just be generic, but Satsuki Yukino as Kaname Chidori, in Full Metal Panic Fumoffu (2003), shows how it is a great character type for comedy. Even if the animators at Kyoto Animation were not as on top as they were, managing to bring in facial ticks and body language in for the punch lines, Yukino committed to the role beautifully.

1) A lot of figures from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (2010) could have been on this list. Particularly Arisa Ogasawara as Panty as, sadly not acting as much as Mariya Ise (Stocking) has, she has to play the most abrasive of the titular duo and stands out, also probably one of the few Japanese voice performers who can credibly make English cussing work. But, what is true actor commitment to a production than to play the comedic mascot, who is maimed, run over, diced into cubes, and treated like a joke whilst only being able to say his name? Hence, Takashi Nakamura as Chuck gets the prize. The irony is that, whilst not a slight to anyone at, all, Nakamura has no other credits unless it is Takashi Nakamura the animator/animation director/director, a veteran who has been working since at least the seventies on shows like Yatterman (1977) which, if the same person, adds a greater sense of humour.

 

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The CGI Bus Award for Strangest Moments

Another indulgent award, but with a spoiler warning, as this reflects on all the bizarre sequence I have witnessed and titbits I have encountered. I've decided not to include the ending of Adolescence of Utena (1999) as, whilst exceptionally strange, it is also exceptional. This is for all the weird moments which, good or bad, are definitely memorable. A reminder that the least expected should be appreciated as they are the scenes (or episodes) which linger for you.

Someone turning into a bowl of ramen in Aragami SS (2010) is a great example, unexpected especially for a realistic romantic comedy/drama, even if it has parallel realities as a gimmick, this was never signposted beforehand. The Lost Village in general - because abrupt plot shifts, weird CGI penguin monsters and the CGI bus which christened this award are just among the many curious moments which could have been chosen. How death by toilet transpires in Calamity of a Zombie Girl (2018), or that the protagonist of Mad Bull 34 (1990) coming to a night-time sting operation with grenades tied to his pubic hair in his trousers. Yuri Seijin Naoko-san's end credits, for the 2010 anime, where being on a train in the countryside manages to make an already bizarre six minutes weirder, and the two avant-garde episodes of Serial Experiments Lain (1998) make an already more esoteric show, including a cameo by a little grey man, more unconventional than it already was.

All honourable mentions alongside times where a show can deliberately catch you off-guard, such as the Gainax ending to Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt that concludes the series on a cliffhanger and an abrupt heel turn. Some of you will be aware of the "Gainax Ending", where Gainax productions suddenly change tone drastically or end curiosity, though this one after the end credits on the final episode was clearly a mean and funny joke. Especially as, barring in comic book form, we never got a second season. Sometimes it is something that makes a show better, such as Sarazanmai's obsession with butts, which is funnier knowing a) in Japanese mythology, kappas actually eat a person's soul by sucking it out of the anus, and b) Kunihiko Ikuhara snuck it past the producers without them realising. Sometimes it does not work but you cannot help but think about it, such as sexy versions of Die Hard (1988) and Saw (2004)? Yeap, the final OVA for My Sister, The Writer felt bombs that had to be disarmed by incestuous arousal and being locked in the same grimy bathroom of the first Saw film were sexy.

 

5) Starting off with a mildly odd sequence however, but perfect as it helped a show gain personality, is when Lunar Legend Tsukihime (2003) not only asks the question of how an immortal female vampire has money to hide in human society, but shows that she has being counterfeiting it much to the male protagonist's surprise, an amusing joke that really helped soften a show that really had flaws

4) Gun x Sword's swimsuit episode, in which a matriarchal town still demands its all female residents to wear ultra skimpy swim wear, is abrupt, only managing to work because the episode is both ludicrous and hilariously is needed for the whole series' plot. That there is a TV cut, despite the uncensored version still being tame, really adds to the strangeness.

3) The penultimate episode of Key the Metal Idol (1994-7) is a strange experience, which could accidentally undermine a great series for a viewer. It is a feature length exposition dump, much needed and surreal by the end, but even if it is compelling, it comes out of nowhere in what has to be explained.

2) La Blue Girl Returns (2001-2) has a sequence where, to be blunt, two female characters apply magic lotion to each other by tribbing. Yes, the sensual act, thus having lead to the scene being permanently fixed in my mind over the years, even from a butchered version of the OVA, for how weird it is. Especially because of how casually it transpires and is not even the focus of the scene, or an elaborate hentai sex, just happening in an exposition scene just because.

1) But, undoubtedly, and the reason behind the spoiler warning, is for the shock of how Arcade Gamer Fubuki ends, managing to make an entry on the Disappointing list still compelling. For the most part this was a dull show, only for the villain to be revealed to be a game developer mortified that his tech was being used for military purposes. Suddenly a problematic OVA series, which was on the worst list, has a flashback to him in a Middle Eastern desert using his martial arts strength to stop a ballistic missile in the air with his bare hands, as if the protagonist to an insane "jigoku" manga. It is dumbfounding but what you remember, for good and for bad should have the random impact and unpredictability of such a scene. Also considering this OVA has a velociraptor who could play videogames, even this title has a few aspects which could qualify as weird.

#101 to #150 Retrospective [Part 2]: Best Score and Best Song

Best Score

Honourable mention has to go to Sarazanmai (2019), composed by Yukari Hashimoto, with the added factor that it is also a musical. Yes, there are repeated songs, but they are good so there is nothing to complain about.

5) How strange is it that Zaion: I Wish You Were Here (2001) is both on the Most Disappointing list but also this one? This has happened entirely because you hired Kenji Kawai, regular collaborator with Mamoru Oshii, and his New Age infused score pulls this disappointing GONZO production to something which has an aspect to fondly remember.

4) Continuing the electronic based scores is Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985), which is of note as, when last time legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto was mentioned, another member of the seminal band Yellow Magic Orchestra, its leader Haruomi Hosono, is nodded to this time as he composed this sombre film's sombre music. Of the era but suitably ethereal for this unique production, it adds to such a beautifully haunting film.

3) In contrast, Tekkonkinkreet (2006), a very idiosyncratic work adapted from a Taiyō Matsumoto manga, choose a soundtrack appropriate for its distinct art style in its energy and sense of bounce. Also befitting the production, the first with Michael Arias to be directed by a non-Japanese anime director, the composers are an English duo Plaid, adding a nice international flavour, especially as the film in its clear influence from Japanese crime films is taking their influence of their "borderless" aesthetics.

2) For distinct music, obviously Adolescence of Utena (1999) has to be mentioned, following on from the groundwork laid, and iconic, in the original 1997 television series. Alongside the pieces by Shinkichi Mitsumune, both the series and the film are of note for their songs by J.A. Seazer. Seazer, a theatre and film music composer, had only worked on one other anime, the notorious ero-guro independent production Midori (1992), and it is of note that one of his famous collaborators, the avant-garde filmmaker and polymath Shuji Terayama, was a huge influence on Kunihiko Ikuhara, making their collaboration symbolic. Mitsumune's music is exceptional but Seazer's - rock opera crossed with theatrical choral voices - is the magnum opus of the "cherry on top" for any production.

1) But...if I did not have Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (2010) win the award, I would be an idiot. For a very odd production from studio Gainax and Hiroyuki Imaishi, the music is the one thing that even those who hated the show should have adored. So much music was created per episode by Taku Takahashi (M-Flo) and TCY Crew (TeddyLoid) which is admirable within itself, but the tracks which are repeated stick in the mind and add such a huge part of the show's personality.

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Best Song

A trademark for anime productions, especially television series, is that they have opening and ending theme songs or music. Usually they are songs as, not surprisingly, anime has always been a vehicle for promotion as it is an art medium, but the best examples become iconic as their shows are. Even in the less than expected areas, you can find some great music. Honourable mentions go to two instrumental tracks for example - the spaghetti western theme by way of Japanese instrumentation and manly vocal chanting for Gun x Sword (2005), and the Enya-like track for Luna Legend Tsukihime (2003), which helped bolster a fondness for me for a deeply imperfect series. Whilst none of the songs stand out, I have to admire the ambition and execution for Amagami SS (2010), which had individual end tracks for every female character, sang by their voice actress, for each narrative arch surrounding them.

5) The first is for a pre-existing track, which is less common in anime, but in the case of Serial Experiments Lain (1998) made an obscure song by British band Bôa become iconic in its connection to this legendary series. Normally I am not a fan of indie rock, but Duvet became an iconic aspect of the series' reputation, something I am sure the band were gland to be historically linked to.

4) Full Metal Panic Fumoffu (2003) has evidence that, whilst I actually find most J-pop songs in anime bland, add a Santana approved guitar lick and strong vocals, and Kimi ni fuku kaze ("The Wind Blows to You") by Mikuni Shimokawa is a gem. The end credits to Fumoffu stayed with me over the years, simple with its chibi (diminutive) versions of the characters marching along happily with this delightful song playing over, the combination perfectly suiting a comedy spin-off to an action franchise, one which is loved by some fans more than even the main series.

3) On the opposite spectrum, when requiring a heart pumping track, say for a giant robot show, I see why JAM Project can sustain a career as an "anison" (anime) theme band, as for the first series of Gravion (2002) they provide a great opening song. To the Gravion franchise's credit, whilst lyrically having nothing to do with the show, the pop punk show for the second series' end credits is also great, La♪La♪Bye by Honey Bee, but Nageki no Rosario is the kind of over-the-top and bombastic piece from this collective of a band that gets the blood pumping. Sadly, JAM Project's second song for the second series, whilst great, does find itself in the shadow of the first. Thankfully they bring it back once for the right dramatic moment possible,

2. There are many candidates from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, but it is not the opening and ending songs that became an ear worm, but D City Rock by TeddyLoid with Debra Zeer on vocals, introduced early on but even getting its own music video parody for one of the last episodes. It is the anthem for the show, and yes, it is catchy.

1) But, immediately from the get-go sinking into my heart, it would not be long after hearing Into the Night by Sario Kijima for the first time, for the fascinating OVA obscurity Key the Metal Idol (1994-7), I was enraptured by the song. A moody, jazz and electronica driven pop song of melancholia and desiring love, it fits the fact that, initially presuming this would be a quirky nineties production about a robot girl wanting to become an idol singer, I ended up instead with a structurally ambitious and dark sci-fi drama in its place.

#101 to #150 Retrospective [Part 1]: The Disappointing and The Weirdest

Another "best of" awards, but with one major difference - last time, between the 1st and the 100th being covered, there was over five years of a blog and also many titles to shift through for the last of these indulgent "awards". Feeling that was ridiculous last time, covering the last fifty anime I have covered is a wiser decision. It also offers a greater sense of introspection as, with fewer titles to go over, some may have a greater chance of recognition this year.

We start however with the "most disappointment". I am not happy to use the phrase "worst", and in fact, if anyone had a defence of these titles, I would be fascinated to hear their defence. They however mark out a common theme - the slippery slope of fan service, gross undercurrents in the depiction of sexuality, less than stellar CGI animation, very lazy screenwriting and a lot of padding.

The list is a testament that arguably the truly worse is not that which is compelling, as neither Mars of Destruction (2005) nor Skelter Heaven (2004) are not on the list. They are terrible creations, Skelter Heaven the most striking, but they are too short to have a negative impact, and compelling for me to watch. For some Mad Bull 34 (1990-2), a notorious Magic Bus adaptation of a Kazuo Koike manga, would justify its position on a worse list and feels even scuzzier nowadays in the summer 2020 with its take on an American bad cop with a heart and all its problematic interest in sexual violence. It yet is so bizarre, with so much that is weird within it, that I will feel even if it deserves to be on the list, there is material which is surprisingly worse and also without even that sense of a car crash fascination.

Oh, and likewise, La Blue Girl Returns (2001-2) does not get on the list for how bizarre it was too. Also, I had only covered the censored British release, which negates it for the list anyway as it is turned into something else for how much was cut out with scissors.

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The Disappointing

5) Arcade Gamer Fubuki (2002) starts off the list properly with a great premise, imagining if competitive video gaming contests were for the fate of the world, and even has Sega licensed properties, but instead is, urgh, fixated on young teenage girls' underwear instead. That elephant in the room, really creepy objectification which is presented even more here than in other anime, is found all alongside the fact this is an exceptionally lazy production in pace and story, only getting any interest when the final episode gets ridiculous in its plot details. That it is this low on the list is for the fact it is the most technically accomplished in production on the list, and for there to be some good moments (like Mr. Mystery's English voice actor) to soften the experience.

4) Out of all these titles Zaion: I Wish You Were Here (2001), studio Gonzo's attempt at an ONA (straight to online anime) early into their foundation and when this format existed, is unfairly among titles which are far more problematic. It also has one huge virtue in the score by Kenji Kawai, which is exceptional. It is also unfortunately the blandest title I covered, all the usual plot points reduced to their most apathetic. Worse is that this has a similar plot to Mars of Destruction - an alien infection turning people into mutants, sci-fi super soldiers, empty streets and shanky 3D models - but has less personality than the notorious bomb made a few years later, and feels worse as that production was less the nineteen minutes long. Hence, it has to be here.

3) Back to the unfortunate sleaze, and if there is any virtues with Sorcerer Hunters OVA (1996-7), a) it is the main theme, which is catchy, and b) I do want to see the original television series these were created for. These three episodes, which are allowed to be more adult and explicit, are fluff but unfortunate that also means the episodes suffer from their worse moments, baring a sweet final one surrounding a tree that only blossoms after long periods of time. These worse moments are unfortunately creepy sexual aspects, including what is the main hero, a klutz, effectively having a rape fantasy playing on in his head, and a gay stereotype. It is not a technically bad show, sometimes fun, but the combination of generic plots and the more problematic aspects means this deserves a place. It says a lot that one of your heroines' alternative forms, in her S&M costume, being based off The Night Porter (1974) is not the concern to have than other aspects.

2) Into the 2020s, unfortunately COVID-19 has left a drastic mark on life that is more significant. Anime has been affected, but titles were already completed before the brunt of it still were released, so even if television series and theatrical releases were delayed into the later months of 2020, and others until 2021, there are titles out there. It has also left the potential for The Island of Giant Insects (2020), unless it has been forgotten already from its Crunchyroll premiere, to be a significant title for the year too. Having seen Calamity of a Zombie Girl (2018), which I came to with zero expectations due to reviews, only to actually find a bit I liked, we can still touch back upon the older era of very lurid OVAs occasionally in the modern day.

The thing I do not want, which sadly this feature length production does, is this. Where, despite being a throwback to the eighties and nineties OVAs involving gore and sex, the violence was censored in the version I saw, and presents problematic sexual content that is very different from a deliberate ero-guro presentation, presenting as well how this is a production based in a schism. That it is, in its premise about such an island of giant insects, a hyper-sexed up and gorier take on an American fifties b-movie, but it is a modern anime production designed to sell nudity of drawn female characters, one that is both chaste and yet for more perverse in an uncomfortable degree than a deliberately transgressive version could have been. It is also a production, between its bad 3D insects and an egregious moment of padding involving a character walking down a corridor, that it is neither the compelling trash anime or something great but utterly inert.

1) Well, what else should be here but My Sister, the Writer (2018)? A production so notorious you have sympathy for the animation staff, which was leaving distress signals in the production credits. It is perversely not the incest plot, or even the character of Ahegao W Peace Sensei as a female creator with a taste for problematic transgressive porn, which will make one feel filthy, but how utterly innocuous the entirely ten episode show is. It is an incredibly bland series, and that is before we get to how bad the animation gets, a cavalcade of misaligned character faces and torsos, captions posted online as this show was sinking like a capsizing ship just two episodes in. It is not even a compelling bad work, but something utterly inane in spite of its problematic subject treatment, a downward spiral of when productions go wrong we will evoke in time to come if it is ever remembered.

 

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The Weirdest

The last time I made this award, and also again this time, the Weirdest will be the longest list as the strangest titles in pop culture have always fascinating and enticed me, with their peculiarities and idiosyncrasies. Last year, the top spots were taken by the best, but this year, the rules have been changed (for the most part) to emphasis the weirdest, good and bad.

10) It is probably unintentional meanness to include Virtual-San Looking (2019) - this is not dissimilar to a large variety of shows about characters talking, but adding a new take is that it is a television series starring "virtual YouTubers", who take on moving avatars and personas, with the show filmed with these stars in character moving, to the point the digressions about the camera being unable to follow them are probably real. Virtual-San for an outsider, full of references I did not understand and with hyped up stars wanting to succeed springing about full of enthusiasm, is strange and compelling for a sight of an obscure community. Also, it is the one title on the list, to avoid it sounding a crass nomination, when it is given with affection like a parent to one happy to see their children creating something by themselves and trying their hardest.

9) You would be thinking a metaphysical contemplation of death, with the cast (mostly) depicted as humanised cats, with a scene of a character capturing candy birds, would be higher on the list. Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985) is also a sombre film, methodical even in context of anime, arguably making this material much more meaningful and actually synthesize together into something truly profound. Undeniably though it is strange, including the fact that this is based on a novel unfinished by its creator by his death, with multiple versions before one finally became one of his most beloved pieces of literature, that this was also originally meant for children as a novel and the fact that the production felt it could only work by making the cast mostly cat humanoids, that becoming iconic to the point that whenever Kenji Miyazawa is depicted or adapted into anime, cat humanoids characters have been used multiple times. It is strange enough still but in a meaningful way.

8) And in the opposite direction, a lot of Gundam Reconguista in G (2014-5) feels like it makes no sense. The reason why what should be a very straight forward giant robot show drama, another entry in the iconic Gundam franchise, both gets onto this list and was, until 2019 and 2020, never even getting a compilation film or two afterwards, as is traditional for entries in the franchise, is because of Yoshiyuki Tomino. Tomino helped create this franchise, but it is also evident that he is a great idea man but a very erratic creator, here even penning the screenplay as well as directing like some mad auteur. Character mood swings of the extreme sort, tonal shifts, a main male character who comes off as a sociopath by accident and that is not even taking into account that, nowadays, a twenty six episode is rarer and, as a result, a long series which builds to a greater level with the confusing layers. Who knows what would happen if, like other Gundam series which were successful, this managed to have over fifty episodes.

7) Mad Bull 34 (1990-1992) is a deeply problematic OVA, the scuzzy tales of a New York City police officer and his new partner which will likely age far worse nowadays as the hero is both the cop on the edge, who uses violence and trigger happy justice, but has a heart of gold. As a Kazuo Koike adaptation, the legendary manga writer is notorious for never taking any conventional direction, and likewise in-between the uncomfortable levels of sleaze, you also however have someone having to gamble on which drink can has not been rigged with explosives, and a final episode which is the best for jettisoning the unsavoury content in favour of weirdness. As in someone killing police dressed as a Predator, involving a fight in a stadium with a cameo by an Alien franchise power loader and ending on a marriage-suicide pact on a snowy night.

6) La Blue Girl Returns (2001-2), even without the drastic censorship for the UK DVD release that makes the last two episodes incomprehensible, would have gotten onto this list for the first two, which have been permanently sketched into my brain for a long time. An unholy combination of hentai erotica and body horror action, where God or the creator of this world can be entered inside as a dimension, even into Their colon, and sexual ninja skills allow a woman to project acid from an intimate area alongside other talents. It is also meant to be a comedy despite all the rape that was excised, and everything as this is just after the 2000s began is colourfully gauche. And the studio, mostly known for a lot of non-hentai ecchi and erotica programming, also made Elfen Lied (2004) which now baffles me as, whilst it was a notorious and imperfect show with nudity and extreme gore, is one I will defend and had fans. How the same studio for that is also the same who made this, just a couple of years earlier, is a perplexing question.

5) The Burning Buddha Man (2013) is perversely more wholesome in comparison, and when the creator's nom de plume is "Ujica", the name for green tea ice cream, it reveals we have something special on our hands (and coming to the UK on Blu Ray with Violence Voyager (2018), thanks to Third Window Pictures). The innovator of "geki-mation", paper puppet stop motion done entirely by himself, his art style with grotesque detail is already distinct before you get to the plot, where a shady organisation are fusing themselves to stolen Buddhist statues to cheat in attaining enlightenment superpowers.

4) Yuri Seijin in Naoko-San, either the 2010 OVA or the 2012 OVA, are strange but the first is a holy grail of concentrated weirdness about a female alien from the Planet Yuri, wanting to make the world gay. Her attraction to little girls, which borders on a line between both OVAs as tasteless but also sickly funny, as is her habit in the second of leaving porn magazines everywhere even on the street. Here a super punch is super because a train can materialise on the tarmac of a street to hit the opponent. You can even ride said train, and someone suddenly has an existential crisis voiced in monologue by an increasingly deranged male voice. Yes, Yuri Seijin is peculiar. Unlike Utsu-musume sayuri (2004), a notorious three minute sort which never got on this list or the Disappointing one, because it just felt slight, together these two OVAs despite being only thirty six minutes together are memorable.

3) In the Aftermath (1988) marks the only bonus episode of the last fifty anime covered, but woo, what a curiosity it nonetheless was, made stranger knowing this alternative Roger Corman produced cut of Mamoru Oshii's Angel's Egg (1985) has even had Blu Ray releases in the West, even a British release through Arrow Video in 2019, but the original gem from Oshii is clearly stuck in a licensing or pricing issue. The history is weird enough and a warning of how "foreign" titles were once cut about to sell to English speaking countries - someone at Corman's New World Pictures, when they acquired the rights to the original existential gem, felt they could make the film better by adding live action sequences and turning an existential avant-garde sci-fi about loss of faith into a regular post apocalypse story. Their attempt to make the film better, reeking of narrow-mindedness, managed to make even less sense as men cry about there being no fish and spirit girls being spanked with meteorites. I openly admit I enjoyed the film but, yeah, managing to be this weird when trying to make something make more sense is also hilarious.

2) Whilst I said this list would have more emphasis on the weirdest anime, there are exceptions and Adolescence of Utena (1999) is both one of the oddest things in even Kunihiko Ikuhara's career, which speaks plenty, but also exceptional. The idea behind the theatrical follow up film to his seminal 1997 television series is strange already, trying to condense a thirty plus episode story into under ninety minutes, is a challenge as is the fact it is clearly meant to be seen when you have already seen the series, much more darker in tone and franker about its LGBT romance in the centre.  (This was something which MVM Entertainment (bless their cotton socks) missed when they first licensed the film for a British DVD release.) A popular character only makes a cameo as a cow, and the world is a fairy tale high school crossed with an ever shifting M.C. Escher drawing. That is not even mentioned that someone in the ending turns into a car. It's one of the best sequences, one of the best conclusions, to an animated film of any origin, but it is certainly one of the weirdest too.

1) So, is it blasphemous that instead The Lost Village (2016) is number one? Well we can explain why Adolescence of Utena came to be as it did from Ikuhara, even in knowledge that he can be deliberately coy on interpretation, but with The Lost Village so much has to be asked. Mainly about what the hell transpired with this horror series even in terms of its existence. How did this turn out as erratically as it did? Was this an off-day for screenwriting superstar, and future director, Mari Okada, or was this deliberately a parody of horror as Nick Creamer at Anime News Network had argued. Can the blame be put on director Tsutomu Mizushima, who gained recognition in notorious black hearted comedies like Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan (2005), and whose work on horror like Another (2012) was never subtle to begin with?

Before we even get to the village, by episode one characters like Love Pon, a girl with distinctly shaped irises, are already visibly insane, and the CGI bus not only does stick out from the 2D animation, but also becomes a viable MVP for the series for all the times it appears out of nowhere and just misses running over a nearby character. One episode ends just about when a character confesses a truth, mid-sentence, like the ultimate tease to annoy viewers. Then a literal giant boob, a silicon implant the size of a mountain, appears to terrorise a character alongside other monstrosities, also rendered in CGI and thus a 3D boob. That is before The Lost Village really stumbles about dazed and ending with little concluded as it begun. Hence, a true candidate for the strange, and a possible candidate for a cult audience if a whole bunch of us deliberately watch this on Crunchyroll over and over, and confuse the people who run the site.  Oh, wait, Crunchyroll even published a defence of the series, so I think they would be smirking if we did.

 

TO BE CONTINUED...