#260: Nyanpire - The Animation (2011)

 

Studio: GONZO

Director: Takahiro Yoshimatsu

Screenplay: Natsuko Takahashi

Based on the manga by yukiusa

Voice Cast: Ami Koshimizu as Nyanpire; Jun Fukuyama as Nyantenshi; Noriaki Sugiyama as Masamunya Dokuganryū; Yuko Goto as Chachamaru; Nozomi Maeda as Komori-kun / Mōri-kun; Shinnosuke Tachibana as the Vampire; Shion Hirota as Misaki-chan; Shion Hirota as the Narrator / Katsuo

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

To be continued, meow.

Nyanpire is tragically slight, a cute premise for a longer series which is only four minutes long per twelve episodes, not allowing it to stand out let alone burn out a silly premise to the point it does not work. A kitten, as explained in the pre-credit prologue, was left abandoned and hungry, only for a male vampire to show empathy and save it from death by giving them eternal life, thus creating a "Nyanpire". Thankfully a human girl Misaki took him in and is aware of his need for blood, as she is able to talk to him, one who is precocious and can find, whilst not a suitable substitute, that ketchup is delicious even if Tabasco sauce is to be approached with caution. Baring the final episode playing on a sad idea, Nyanpire considering his friends' mortality against his immortality, this is a fluffy show which plays on skits involving our undead cat lord in his misadventures with mostly cat friends. It is absolutely as silly a premise as it sounds too if adorable.

Surprisingly for me, this is a production by studio GONZO, made after a time when they were a huge producer of titles as I was getting into anime into the 2000s. They still exist, producing titles throughout the 2010s from this, but by 2008 and 2009, they had huge financial issues which lead them to be absorbed into their parent company, GDH K.K., in 2009. There is a brief melancholia to Nyanpire because of this, despite its cuteness and GONZO's sporadic track record in quality, in how they are making this micro-series under the shadow of those events, a company who seemed to be everywhere prominently in their releases from ADV Films when I was getting into anime, even making a music video for Linkin Park, only to be less prominent in their status as an animation studio. Beyond this however, there is a sense the production was made with fun and that history means little barring the recognition of their name on the end credits, one which went out of its way to be a full live action band musical number with cat puppets, Gothic Lolita costumes and a blood I.V.

The shortness of the show, like many micro-series, leave a lot on the table for a Halloween appropriate series, Garfield for the Goths, in how this is a motley crew of characters surrounding an impulsive but adorable lead. This breaks from a lot of vampire traditions, like the fact he can go in the sun, but many are for jokes, like his love of garlic ramen, or how there is a theory the vampire that turned him may be an obsessive collector of cats who keeps them in a void in his person. It is a fun cast around him too, beginning with an ex-angel cat, kicked out of heaven and a little cad, making up stories of being thrown out for loving a female angel, to the adopted and more sensible little brother to Nyanpire. Two bats, more like trolls in their behaviour, make up non-feline figures, but the character of interest is Masamunya Dokuganryū. Likely a parody of Date Masamune, he is an unexpected joke to include if for a figure even played by Ken Watanabe in the 1987 historical television series Dokuganryū Masamune among many other appearances in Japanese popular culture: Masamune in reality was a magistrate, tactician and a regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period who was known for his missing eye, dubbed the "One-Eyed Dragon of Ōshū". It may be a stretch, but considering Masamunya is a cat with an eye patch too, I would not be surprise if the joke is revolving around a real Japanese historical figure of a similar type. More unexpected is that the samurai cat is initially introduced trying to banish Nyanpire, only to end up with a smitten crush and realises he is gay when he learns Nyanpire is actually male. I was not expecting, on the bingo card of anime, a positive gay character within a show about a cartoon cat vampire, but with Nyanpire, here we go, and whilst Masamunya is the butt of jokes, the only ones in regards to this is Masamunya struggling with trying to express his love to Nyanpire, who is oblivious and his jealously that the angel cat does feel any harm if Nyanpire bites him for blood.

Micro-series, unless we are talking about gdgd Fairies (2011-2013) or Teekyu (2012-17), which got many series, unfortunately feel like the equivalent of old school forty minute OVAs, enticing little snippets of a premise which, in the most rewarding, at least present something interesting with a personality of its own. Even something more questionable in its production quality, like Sparrow's Hotel (2013), a micro-series about a female staff who uses her ninja skills to keep a hotel at five stars in quality ratings, can still entice with a ludicrous premise. Personality is something I can attest to for Nyanpire. Nearly forty minutes, the equivalent of an old straight-to-video project, this shows enough to appreciate the content but also leaves me wishing it had more to the project, both a real positive, but sad in that as a 2011 project, this never had a follow up throughout the 2010s.

#243: Ninja Gaiden (1991)

 

Studio: Studio Junio

Director: Mamoru Kanbe

Screenplay: Tomofumi Nobe

Based on the video game by Tecmo

Voice Cast: Keiichi Nanba as Ryū Hayabusa; Norio Wakamoto as Robert T. Sturgeon; Yumi Touma as Irene Lew; Daisuke Gouri as Jeffrey Hammond; Saori Suzuki as Katherine Friedman; Shinji Ogawa as Prof. Bucky Wise; Unshō Ishizuka as Dr. Ned Friedman; Yoshiko Sakakibara as Sarah

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

An eighties straight-to-video title at heart, though finding itself published in the early nineties, this is an obscure anime adaptation of a video game. This particular one has a fascinating history, as many may know this video game franchise first through a reboot series from Team Ninja, which were released entirely for Microsoft's consoles, part of their history of attempting to make the Xbox successful in Japan against stiff competition, starting with Ninja Gaiden (2004). This is adapting from the first era, of the Nintendo NES/Famicon era though with the original game a 1988 arcade cabinet. This anime was released at the time between Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (1990) and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (1991), a franchise which had already established Ryū Hayabusa, a figure you may also know from the Dead or Alive beat em up game franchise, as Team Ninja developed those games and brought him from his own franchise to become a key member for that one, which is interesting as a rare case of someone not being a cameo character. It is also in knowledge that game series got a live action adaptation, DOA: Dead or Alive (2006), which means Hayabusa has also been played by Kane Kosugi, son of Japanese martial arts film star Sho Kosugi, a huge figure of the ninja boom of pop culture in the eighties which lead to Ninja Gaiden and Sega's Shinobi video game franchise existing, which is a deliciously intricate web of influences and crossovers.

The story here is very simple off the back of this franchise, good ninja versus an evil group in a forty plus minute anime, connecting to a previous demonic villain being defeated and the aftermath with the threat of their return transpiring. The feeling of this being an eighties anime in tone was a legitimate mistake, not realising until later this was released in the nineties, as it feels from the get-go from the same lineage of eighties straight-to-video titles, even the lower budget ones, which still had a style to them. It begins here with a shot, set in New York City, at night in the fog covered streets where our lead finds him being accosted by two masked assassins in suits and arm hidden blades, which shows there is some creativity that sparkles at times throughout. This is still the era you could get away with recreating the exact poster to Les Misérables, the 1980 musical version of Victor Hugo's novel, in the background to establish the location where Ryu the ninja is drawn closer to the Friedman Corporation, up to no good as with other corporations, with their head Professor Ned Friedman behind diabolic human experiments of a biotechnical kind. The gore in the work as well, and the weird monsters thrown about, regardless of the era it was actually made in feels distinct to at least the time when straight-to-video anime from these decades.

Anime straight-to-video titles were once so prolific that numerous ones like this existed, likely never had a Western release anywhere, and were entirely unknown of once time had passed. It is a generic story with only some drama in Ryu's love for a woman, working in a store with him, who forces him to confront the duality of his life, but this is an action work with a slant into horror first-and-foremost. It does evoke the most curious and enticing video game from this period you wish you could play with this horror slant, inexplicably evoking Castlevania if with ninjas, when you will have freakish white fish men or goons who have skinless faces with just eyes under their masks as antagonists, casually introduced in the character designs for a scene never to be seen again. (Let alone the human headed wolf in a motley crew of them in the final skirmish at the Friedman Corporation). It justifies the idea of how much creativity was burnt up even on a moderately interesting title like this one from the time, let alone one of the future classics of this medium of anime.

Studio Junio is a more obscure studio, one which has collaborated with other studios in areas like in-between animation. Their own work is a curious mix, from Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Brothers (1989), an obscure Mario tie-in in which the Nintendo characters reinterpret fairy tales, to Saber Marionette J (1996-7), likely their biggest title in terms of how it developed sequels and was once a huge title in the nineties. Founded in 1970 by Takao Kozai, their last title in animation was the 1999 film Gundress. Infamously an "unfinished" version had a theatrical premiere in Japan, this work based on the work of Masamune Shirow involved test animation and animatics being used for the ninety minute length in a story¹. It was infamous for how customers were greeted with an apology note from the producers ("This film isn't finished at all") and a form to be sent a free finished VHS copy upon its release². Tragically, this was how Studio Junio finished in the animation industry.

 Ninja Gaiden itself is not something to convert people to, one of the virtues also a flaw to these many OVAs from the past that so many of them were made, to the point that you will encounter ones like this that can have moments of virtue but also may not entirely be the best of its genre. What this is a generic story about guys with the tropes its small plot usually have,  one which eventually becomes macho, with a band of male soldiers who, unfortunately, when their female reporter friend wishes to help in the last raid, tie her at the base on a chair for a joke scene. Admittedly, there is also the moment where one of them named Jeff, mid-gun battle, talks of how military man like men as much as women and alcohol, so I also give credit for unexpected progressiveness in this anime too.

Beautifully as well, this slight work still introduces director Mamoru Kanbe back in my writings, who I knew original for the notorious Elfen Lied (2004), a television series whose flaws cannot undercut, for its lurid and transgressive content, the ideas which did stick out for me. He went on with The Promised Neverland (2019), the first season at least acclaimed at the time, and it is cool to stumble on this early production he directed without realising it; there is nothing here which could suggest a trademark, but when he was not directing comedy like Robonimal Panda-Z: The Robonimation (2004), which is literally about a giant panda robot, Kanbe throughout his career lent into horror and you can see it even here, a genre he would return to or be the right person to bring in for the likes of The Promised Neverland to a Go Nagai adaptation Demon Prince Enma (2006) which took the source into a much more adult version. He is becoming the unsung person I admire the more I find his work, and whilst the screenwriter only has a few credits, and the studio had a tragic ending, this also an obscure title for its animation director and character designer Osamu Horiuchi. Horiuchi would go on with a healthy career from this with the likes of the Full Metal Panic franchise in similar roles, making them a figure of note to pick out too if not a more prominent one. Figures already working in the industry at the time, and those who would be working into the 2000s on, crossed paths on this obscurity in a variety of roles, and yes, the fact that Ninja Gaiden would get a significant reboot in the original video games cannot be ignored either. That franchise would struggle into Ninja Gaiden 3 (2012) which adds its own tale-within-a-tale here too; with the controversial figurehead of Tomonobu Itagaki leaving, those in Team Ninja attempted to take a franchise into a more accessible form, originally designed to be hardcore difficult in gameplay, leading to a divisive inclusion. Alongside the Dead or Alive franchise slipping alone in later sequels, Ryū Hayabusa has found himself in a fascinating number of tales, even when they have been disasters or part of the unfortunate nature of any industry where your next title can fail or be released unfinished in the cinemas. This anime is one of the minor tales from his career, be it commerce or evil demon warriors, but it is an enticing curiosity which, at forty minutes, is too short and with enough within it to not watch.

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1) Shirow's Kids, part of The Mike Toole Show series of articles, written by Mike Toole and published for Anime News Network on July 3rd 2011.

2) Do Movies Experience "Production Crunch" Like TV Series Do?, written by Justin Sevakis and published by Anime News Network on June 12th 2019.

#229: Nightwalker - The Midnight Detective (1998)

Studio: AIC (Anime International Company)

Director: Kiyotoshi Sasano and Yutaka Kagawa

Screenplay: Genki Yoshimura, Ryota Yamaguchi and Toji Gobu

Voice Cast: Takumi Yamazaki as Shido Tatsuhiko; Emi Shinohara as Yayoi Matsunaga; Maaya Sakamoto as Riho Yamazaki; Ai Uchikawa as Asami Akiba; Akira Ishida as Shunichi; Ayumi Kida as Miharu; Chiemi Chiba as Yuki; Eiji Maruyama as Shuzo Akiba; Hideyuki Tanaka as Cain

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

[Major Spoilers Throughout]

Always a title I wished to get to, Nightwalker is especially a case of my tastes winning over some clear flaws with this thirteen episode horror show. It is also a curious chimera as, for four episodes, it is visibly clear this could have been a straight-to-video production if there was no success getting a television deal, a literal line between when it could have been and that which became the series, both in the look in little details of the show and having two different directors. It was also adapted from a video game for the PC-9801 personal computer in 1993, an eroge (“erotic”) production which should not be a dismissal as a surprising number of titles for anime are adapted from erotic sources which strip the eroticism out from them. Type-Moon, the creators of the Fate/Zero franchise, originally created it as an erotic visual novel game, only to adapt it into a multi-part work with a huge fan base, so they are a great example of this what Nightwalker attempted to do in the late 1990s, reaching a wider potential of fan base.

Nightwalker is an occult detective story, in this case a vampire named Shido Tatsuhiko who, centuries old, deals with forms called “nightbreeds“ who try to possess human beings’ bodies, such as one possessing an actress, promising talent to her in favour of a craving for flesh, local pets insufficient eventually for the victim of this Faustian pact in that episode. With him are Yayoi Matsunaga, a female agent for an anti-night breed group who is his willing blood donor, as an honourable vampire who does not attack humans and because, in her own back-story episode, she crossed paths with Shido and has a debt to him for emotional baggage. There is Guni, a sardonic demon fairy creature, their Greek chorus, who just appeared when he caught the boat to the city, and Riho Yamazaki, high school girl who, after a tragedy with her family he was involved with dealing with, is hired as a maid and coffee maker for his office. She is why there has to be a spoiler warning ahead, as the show is split between when she is mortal, and when she becomes a vampire when fate forces the hands of those involved.

The first four episodes begin as if this is like other occult detective/warrior/mystic anime I have seen, where it is a series of episodic tales of dealing with monsters and the dark forces where Shido has the advantage of being a vampire, including the ability to use his own blood as weaponry. Where it is clear there was a contingency plan, or this was a show that could have been extended for the television series, is that there is visible differences in things as simple (even compared to the opening credits) in the characters’ hair colour and small touches. More pronounced is that, for the final two episodes of this section, this show significantly becomes more adult suddenly. The antagonist for the franchise is Cain, a vampire who turned Shido, explicitly playing to them as lovers in a former life. The arch is quick to finish, but suddenly there is an escalation in eroticism with actual nudity, and in terms of the violence, becoming closer to an actual straight-to-video release in terms of some gore involved even if entirely of blood. If a significant change transpired in the creation of the series, which was jettisoned midway through the production, note as mentioned that there are two directors. Neither have considerable directing credits. Yutaka Kagawa is more a prolific story boarder, only really directing a few things such as Wonder Momo (2014), a bizarre Namco Bandai original net animation promotion for rebooting their old game catalogue through Western developed web comics and animation, which they just dropped a month after Wonder Momo's animated premiere. Kiyotoshi Sasano only has this and Legend of Basara (1998) credited to them on Anime News Network¹, which is a strange thing to see, causing one to speculate who they were and how they got involved twice in the industry in pretty significant roles on a production.

The first four episodes could have been an ending – as it does led to the fact that Riho is turned into a vampire when caught in the crossfire – if slight. What we get afterwards could be argued, to be honest, to be a drop in quality as it becomes a very conventional horror show. Like the Vampire Princess Miyu's 1997-8 TV series, this is a series of episodic monster tales driven by their mood, in that these slight episodes do not have enough time to really draw them out and relay on the tone of the series and its cast to flesh them out. Some of the episodes are good even in these twenty plus minute narratives. One is the moral implications when a nightbreed is a child. One involves Shido finding himself stuck in a well with a child and a demon, and another tells Yayoi's story, one of two female twins in an emotionally stark relationship when one was disfigured in a fire in their childhood. The best episode plays as a gleefully macabre tale where a family decide to bump off the patriarch of their family for his money, only for the body to have started wandering around town now possessed by a nightbreed, leading them to become paranoia as Shido and his team finds themselves abruptly involved, all because he and Riho were shopping and had the china tea set they were purchasing broken in a moment of pure chance.

Some of the content is fleshing out these main characters, including the moral implications of Riho's life, now having to severe her ties to her school friends and accepting her new life as it stands. This includes the final episode, which commits a sin found even in Western live action television of how it imagines the worse circumstances for Shido - in which Riho turns evil out of anger of her existence, attacking mortals, and eventually managing to kill everyone around Shido - before it turns out to be a dream. It is a cheap ending twist, but in this case, I can leave it as a guilty pass, in that it turns out to be the anxieties of Shido being fed upon, a slither of this throughout his characterization of his past being one dominated by lost family, an ill advised attempt to bring family to life, and trying to amend his sins. Here it least makes sense even if contrived, and at least leaves the show on a memorable moment.

A lot of the show is instead carried by its mood, both as a late nineties hand drawn series and in deliberate touches. The music is a great example of this. The opening song, an existing one, is Gessekai by BUCK-TICK, a band who started in the eighties and was clearly going through a creative metamorphosis at this point, their albums in the mid to late nineties as a Visual Kei band experimenting with electronica and industrial music in sounds like this, an appropriately moody and gothic song to start the show. The soundtrack by Akifumi Tada, throughout the series, descends into progressive jazz rock at times, like a seventies LP is about to break out, which is a curious if inspired choice for a horror show.

In terms of horror anime, this is not one of the significant ones from even that time, but I am glad to have seen it. A lot of the appreciation for me is from its style, the late nineties animated television screening after midnight on Japanese television, all purple and blacks and dark colours, mostly set at night, and with the monster designs all unconventional. For all its flaws, simply because it never gets a chance to expand and develop a greater weight, there was more than enough for me to enjoy.

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1) Kiyotoshi Sasano's Anime News Network biography.

#209: Ninja Scroll (1993)

 

Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Screenplay: Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Cast: Kōichi Yamadera as Jubei Kibagami; Daisuke Gouri as Genma Himuro; Emi Shinohara as Kagerou; Takeshi Aono as Dakuan; Akimasa Ohmori as Shijima; Gara Takashima as Benisato; Junichi Sugawara as Shinkurou; Masako Katsuki as Zakuro; Norio Wakamoto as Utsutsu Mujuurou; Reizō Nomoto as Mushizou; Ryūzaburō Ōtomo as Tessai; Shuuichirou Moriyama as Sakaki Hyobu; Toshihiko Seki as Yurimaru

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

Ninja Scroll for a certain generation was a huge title. It says a lot that, out of many of the old titles from Manga Entertainment during their VHS years, Ninja Scroll still has a cache, even if now a nostalgic one. Coming to the film at the turn of the DVD era, back when we once madly had three to four episodes per disc released individually, we even got Ninja Scroll in two separate DVD cases for different versions from Manga Entertainment for some reason. That bulky DVD case release does linger in memory, long after it was replaced for a Blu Ray, as an introduction to Yoshiaki Kawajiri's most well known directorial work.

The surprise coming to Ninja Scroll is that, a notoriously violent and dark tale of Edo era Japan and superhuman ninja, was that as far back as 1959 we got this genre of superhuman ninja with unnatural powers, all because of the novel The Kouga Ninja Scrolls by Futaro Yamada, which would be adapted into anime, and can be seen as a home for the notion of ninjas having monstrous and outright supernatural abilities. The other surprise is that Yoshiaki Kawajiri's reputation for graphic content is more complicated than I presumed at a younger age. Wicked City (1987) is the notorious film in his career, in terms of sex and violence and sexual violence, but his whole career is diverse, with something of note that one of his highest regarded projects Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000), was drastically different from the source material by Hideyuki Kikuchi, with Wicked City itself an adaption of one of his titles too. Even Ninja Scroll, which is extreme at times, is complicated now to consider as, from an era of "adult" animation being sold to the West from Japan, even in mind to titles like Ninja Resurrection (1997-8) which were sold off the back of Ninja Scroll's success, it is a much more considered title even for what is an action period story at heart.

In fact, viewed in its original Japanese dub, looked at in the current I realise that for all Ninja Scroll's gore and sexual content, it is an elegant and superbly crafted production as a theatrical length film. Story wise, it is surprisingly complex even if the results are simple. Jubei, inspired by the real life figure of Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, is a wandering warrior who finds himself dragged into a conspiracy with the Eight Devils of Kimon, ninja with inhuman abilities hired by a shadowy clan who, in a plot involving secret gold stashes, wish to overthrow the ruling heads of Japan. Jubei is stuck in helping prevent this as Dakuan, a sinister magical old man working for the government, has poisoned him and holds the antidote hostage. In contrast, however, there is the heart of Kagero, the female ninja who, alongside having been a food taster for so long her body is resistant to all poisons, has enough toxins in her own body that any person who has contact with her will die, be it by kiss or anything else. Already resourceful, her group sent to investigate a village which has been wiped out by a disease is massacre, and she finds herself with Jubei and Dakuan.

It is very simple beyond this. The film is also both a tribute in many ways to classic Japanese genre films, though one about ninja that is far darker, openly fantastical and bloodier in comparison. Interestingly, whilst these ninja have the ability to control snakes or turn their body to stone, they negate so many clichés the likes of American cinema and Godfey Ho created about ninja lore at the same time. There are still exaggerations, shurikens been thrown and all, but there are details like ninjas being involved in espionage or disguising as monks/nuns, based on what actual ninja were doing. The nod to genre films is that, with mind of known works like the Lone Wolf and Cub franchise, this finds a balance between an incredibly serious tone, with a bleak emotional core as Jubei will be stuck as a permanent loner, and the hyper exaggerated characters and abilities.

One trademark of Kawajiri's, even far less well regarded work like Highlander: The Search for Vengeance (2007) showing this, is his interest in idiosyncratic looking characters, where even grunts stand out in character design and traits (abilities, monstrous mutations etc.). The very realistic character designs which appear in most of his career, whilst not in all his work, helps considerably, and is because of the talents of reoccurring collaborator Yutaka Minowa, the character designer for so many of his projects. Another is that, when allowed creative control. Kawajiri is very creative. It is, whilst a very serious period film with a complex narrative of secret factors wishing to overthrow the government, it is still an action film which has a man with a bee's nest growing out of his back and also welding a trident. Why the film avoids coming off as ridiculous is the quality of the animation, exceptional from studio Madhouse, alongside the striking cinematography in animation, especially the use of shadow and colour.

Most, when this was first released, came when this was promoted as a very violent anime. The gore is definitely from another era. Whilst nastiness can still occasionally be witnessed nowadays, it is less common and not as lovingly (and gristly) depicted in this at times, back from an era where a lot of anime especially for the straight-to-video OVA market was clearly made with shock value in mind, to keep a viewer glued. This is something you can accuse with this for the nudity and the hints to sexual violence and rape. Ninja Scroll though, lovingly animated and produced, has a greater impact. It feels it has more in mind, even if on a shock level, it effects too seeing a lovingly rendered depicted of a man's arms being ripped off and having the geyser of blood from them being drank. I will say that, if you would feel uncomfortable even seeing the content, especially the threats of sexual violence to Kagero, I do not recommend this film at all. There is something more here, even as pure pulp, due to tone which is more meaningful, even if this is still a work some may have great issue with.

The other thing is an awareness Kawajiri's career is very diverse. Again, as mentioned previously, one of the more notorious works Wicked City, which has a lot of sexual violence, comes from Hideyuki Kikuchi, the novelist whose work Kawajiri adapted a great deal of. Kawajiri as a director is more interested in a very elegant type of action animation, alongside tangents into other genres, painstakingly animated and only easy to forget because, with some titles, there are some inherently ridiculous aspects within them. This, even with pulp characters, does have moments of contemplation, where Kagero is the most sympathetic character, and even the villains have their own personalities, including a rivalry which proves in Jubei's favour by pure chance.

Production wise, Ninja Scroll is exceptional. You can argue the pace is reminiscent of an old video game in plot structure, from boss battle to boss battle, but the film itself has grown for me as being so distinct that it stands head and foot over other ultraviolent titles of the era. As a film also referring to the period action stories of Japanese history, this evoking the chambara films with a swordfight in the middle of forest with a blind swordsman, one with a considerably level of grace when, honestly, a lot of the ultraviolent anime from this time period have less class, for a lack of a better term, than this. Reputation wise, when the title was released in the West, it stood out. Insanely well, that Manga Entertainment tried to sell Sword of Truth (1990), not one of Osamu Dezaki's finest moments, afterwards or when ADV Films tried to sell Ninja Resurrection (1997-8), an unfinished OVA, as an actual sequel. It is a cultural touchstone for a certain generation before my generation, but seeing it in its original form, once you step away from the gore it is, from its traditional instrumental score to its art style, amazingly elegant even if this is also a film where Jubei head butts a man repeatedly to death until the skull is mush.

There is an additional tragedy that, as his career went on, Yoshiaki Kawajiri never got to make a sequel. A Western co-financed series Ninja Scroll: The Series (2003) was commissioned, by Kawajiri  did make a "sizzle reel" for Ninja Scroll 2, which looked gorgeous and just as elaborate, including Jubei on a giant paper swan and various supernatural ninja, but it led to nowhere. Our only condolence is that, one of the best animators as well in the industry, even if Kawajiri's directorial work dried up by the end of the 2000s, he worked on shows like One Punch Man, and those in the know of who animate what scenes do lionise him as being an incredible veteran who contributes his skills to big titles.

#200: New Cutey Honey (1994-5)

 

Director: Yasuchika Nagaoka

Screenplay: Higashi Shimizu, Isao Shizuya and Sara Uemura

Based on the Go Nagai manga

Voice Cast: Michiko Neya as Honey Kisaragi; Junko Iwao as Natsuko; Kousei Tomita as Danbei Hayami; Rica Fukami as Daiko Hayami; Rica Matsumoto as Chokkei Hayami; Sho Hayami as Mayor Light; Taeko Yamada as Black Maiden; Wataru Takagi as Akakabu Hayami; Yusaka Yara as Dolmeck; Hirohiko Kakegawa as Peeping Spider

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

I reach an iconic character in anime and pop culture, and like her persona, of a heroine able to transform her costume and persona, Cutey Honey varies per adaptation since her 1973 manga. Created by Go Nagai, a 1973 television series co-existed at the same time of this manga, to which New Cutey Honey is set a hundred years afterwards, with the character becoming flexible in the type of narrative tones you could create with her. The character is fascinating from the get-go as, with the capacity to have been sold to a female audience, a strong female heroine who can transform in a variety of costumes and personas, Honey's manga was actually penned for a young male audience originally, with mind that some of the adaptations, especially New Cutey Honey, emphasised the titillation of each transformation involving the costumes disappearing. That Honey is also an android is a weird touch, as she acts like a human being and can even feel pain, but she is a striking figure who naturally stood out. In her main form, a tomboy with vibrant short red hair who fights with a sword, this character had the potential to also be a strong female lead as much as an eroticised super heroine.

Nagai, never one to shun his kinky side, would have not minded this OVA adaptation's direction, which he had his involvement in including even hand picking the English dub voice actress, Jessica Calvello, for the ADV Films dub¹. Cutie/Cutey Honey has however had multiple variations - a 2004 live action film directed by Hideaki Anno, another sci-fi live action film in 2016, a 2004 OVA Re: Cutie Honey produced by Gainax and involving Hiroyuki Imaishi, a live action television series, and in 1997 a three season series Cutie Honey Flash (1997-8) which took over the television slot the final original Sailor Moon series - so this character has sustained herself for a long time.

New Cutey Honey is a slight work, which is not an insult but in mind that this was meant to be pure entertainment. Eight television series length episodes, just over twenty minutes each, this is split into two halves with different opening and ending sequences. The first follows a narrative of a cabal of villains led by Dolmeck, desiring dominance over the main setting of Cosplay City, the last four episodic stories of Cutey Honey fighting a variety of villains, feeling like the OVA series was cut off from a grander plan to continue. The narrative's centre is Cutey Honey herself; set a hundred years after the original series, once she realises who she is, Honey is ahead with fighting villains with a new gang. A dirty old man Danbei Hayami, a returning character in the franchise whose android body however makes him a powerhouse as well as still be alive in this world, and the Hayami, the parents two former rival gang members, and their son Chokkei a teenager who develops a crush on Honey.

One of the biggest factors to bear in mind for this adaptation is that, juggling between seriousness and comedy, a lot of this includes sex comedy. As an OVA title, this can have as much female nudity as it wants, a paradox in Honey being a potentially strong character yet her gimmick involving her clothing exploding off and reforming into different costumes. The bigger concern, and what has aged, is when the comedy includes the likes of groping or trying to spy on someone in the shower. We have not really progressed decades later, and these being adults is at least more palatable is not defendable, but this in tone is something that does stand out. Thankfully it does not detract entirely, and the character's various forms over the years means that even the sexual side of her persona has been played with in very different ways. It is just that here, you will at least roll your eyes at least once or not feel happy about some of the jokes, none of which is an issue in regards to this having some much nudity and sexual humour but some of how it is dealt with.

What also stands out however is how entertaining this still was. This is a spectacle, a pure colourful piece of pop, a monster/villain of the week narrative but allowed to be more lewd and adult. The playfulness of a Saturday morning cartoon is here, with slapstick and background pedestrians that stand out against the regular characters for absurd effect, but also tonal whiplash as, due to be adult, you can still have deaths. It is somewhat alarming and unpredictable, in a positive way to the content here, that a villainess, despite playing to a dated predatory lesbian undertone, has been capturing and turning innocent young women into decorations in her lair, all preserved in a way that they cannot be brought back unless magic had existed in this world. The show does get serious at moments, but this is definitely an exaggerated fun piece but one that reminds me that this is still a Go Nagai property, the creator of Devil Man and Violence Jack. Even some of its dated content can suddenly pull out something unexpected, such as that villainess being surprised by Honey turning into a dominatrix and that clearly being played out in a way that might subvert the aged aspects greatly.

It is also well made. This is a big, bright production, even in spite of a central location of a giant grey dystopian city, where its theme tune about the lead character is a catch earworm to adore, and the show has enough behind its production to make everything shine. This is a case of spectacle taking priority, which is not really an issue here as, for the criticisms you can have especially about the dated aspects, nothing here was bad. No bad episodes, no dull patches, one episode the highlight where of a female pupper master who, whisking the cast to a feudal Japan setting and armed with human marionettes from samurai fiction, also allows for the lead to dress up as pop cultural figures of ancient Japan. That one episode has Cutey Honey dressed as Jushin Thunder Liger, a legendary professional wrestler who looks like a space alien crossed with a Power Rangers villain in his distinct horned mask with white and red aesthetic, really goes to show how much of the show is gleefully indulging itself.

That the episode where that visual reference appears is also about a prison island, where a pain fixated female leader forces gangs to fight her minions to the death for her sadist pleasures, reminds you how ridiculous this show is but knows. Go Nagai also created Kekko Kamen, which was him just wanting to create a prank character, an almost all-nude heroine, and here especially by the final episode, a children's show character of a gold obsessed female thief who stole a dimensional teleporter, you see that this franchise character is allowed to just be a playful farce. One that is as broad and exaggerated with more sexual humour than could be possible for a weekend morning television show. New Cutey Honey does have a strange structure in that its most dynamic narrative ends in episode four, only to progress with a variety of episodes which vary between the serious to this final one, ending on a gang of disgruntled police trying to force a taxi driver to ship them all back to the city.  For the DVD release in Japan, the closest thing to a continuation of this adaptation was a CD drama, effectively a Christmas based episode, which does suggest this had plans to continue at least for a few more episodes. What we got was nonetheless memorable, and again, this like many iconic characters from manga and anime manage to last due to how her world could be altered and reinterpreted, so Cutey Honey is a figure I will find interesting directions with as the adaptations continue to exist.

 

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1) As referenced in the following.

#188: Nurse Witch Komugi (2002-4)

 

Director: Masato Tamagawa, Masatsugu Arakawa, Yasuhiro Takemoto and Yoshitomo Yonetani

Screenplay: Armstrong Takizawa and Tsuyoshi Tamai

Voice Cast: Halko Momoi as Komugi Nakahara; Ikue Ōtani as Koyori Kokubunji; Yūji Ueda as Mugimaru; Ai Shimizu as Posokichi; Akiko Hiramatsu as Yui Kirihara; Atsuko Enomoto as Megumi Akiba; Ikue Ōtani as Goddess Maya; Masaya Onosaka as Shiro Mibu; Michiko Neya as Runa Tokisaka; Mitsuki Saiga as Kyousuke Date; Yukari Tamura as Asuka Sakurai

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

The immediate detail about Nurse Witch Komugi, a five episode OVA release, is that it is a spin-off to a 2001 television series called The SoulTaker, a very early directorial effort from Akiyuki Shinbo, before he became more famous, which was a dark supernatural story and an attempt by the legendary studio Tatsunoko Production to create a more adult work. Ironically, the humorous tie-in following a side character, recognisable in her nurse's outfit and was a smaller character in the cast, has completely obscured the original work entirely in history. The main lead character, a bland male named Kyosuke, becomes the male love interest for the titular Komugi to become more known as a protagonist, a girl blessed with the power to become a bunny nurse themes magical girl to fight humanised viruses. If ever there was an argument that female characters are usually more interesting as leads for your show, a character that stood out in visual design, allowed to become a bumbling if lovable protagonist is a good example, more so the case as, whilst The SoulTaker vanished, Kumogi got two further straight to video episodes in 2004, and a 2016 reboot in the form of a television series.

The resulting title, which was released without context by itself in the United Kingdom by ADV Films, itself requires no previous knowledge of the original series, another in a line of madcap comedies from the time I saw a lot. This one, following Komugi with her cute bunny mascot Mugi-maru, both the poor subject of abuse but also an undefeatable pervert in certain contexts, is definitely a title that borders on a guilty pleasure, as well being a title that you need to get onto its wavelength to fully appreciate. I will say now, what was once an average OVA when I first saw it has grown on me both in nostalgia from seeing titles like this, affectively a nostalgia for an ADV Vision/Manga Entertainment world of my first anime years, but also because the world and the characters have the virtue that you could elaborate on them in a longer format and, if you kept the same absurdities and colourfulness in look, it would have been great.

It is notable a remake came a decade later, although alongside a clear sense of the character being one with fondness for, or at least the potential to return to as a magical girl parody, they have changed the character designs over time. This is a shame in a way, without wanting to dismiss the 2016 remake in case it proved great in itself, but the premise of the original if funny and open enough to work with. An evil virus has escaped an alternative world, called Vaccine World, and invades ours, using a stand-in called Magical Maid Koyori, an evil representation of maid cafe staff member with magical abilities, to find hotspots that can generate monsters, whether the tensions of a tech convention or distilling a highway's worth of road rage. Komugi is not a perfect heroine, a cosplay idol part of a talent agency called Kiri Pro that is scrapping by, with her own career kneecapped by her continually having to go in her secret persona to fight the monsters. At times greedy and egotistical, Komugi is nonetheless likable, but an added joke (and potential bit of tension) is that Magical Maid Koyori is actually her best friend Koyori Kokubunji, a likable young girl her age who however has a split personality, one she is completely unaware of, which is evil and takes over at unexpected times.

Definitely one of the factors to bear in mind with the original OVA is that, for what I enjoyed about the show, some of the humour has aged considerably. Openly, just to give you a perspective of what some of the humour is, and why the short show can be a title some readers will struggle, can be shown in how one of the most prominent changes I can glace at is that Koyori's character design is significantly less busty. There is no way to move around this, but a lot of Komugi's humour, alongside slapstick and being a Tatsunoko that can parody their back catalogue, is sex comedy, from Mugi-maru being a pervert who keeps making the mistake of being in the bathroom when Komugi bathes, but also about characters obsessing about their lack of a bust or vast amounts of on others. Again this is a title that causes me to wonder whether there is a cultural issue in Japan about the status of a woman's bust, or whether this is just a trope male writers have repeated as a gag in their expense. Particularly with Komgui and her follow Kiri Pro co-member Megumi, who derides Komugi as being as flat as an ironing board whilst she is more physically round in areas, you are going to have to put up with a lot of this humour throughout, just like the skimpy outfits, or the scenes (without actual nudity) of bathing, or a final episode villain, an alien schoolteacher who brainwashes most of Japan and has been comically over-provided in anatomy. Worse and more lasciviousness examples exist in anime I have seen from this period, but the sex humour definitely makes the OVA have some guilt to its enjoyment. More so because it is not subtle, nor really inspired, more an excuse to gander at drawn busts like young boys, which gets repetitive for ever other joke that lands.

You have to bear in mind as well many obscurer (by a Western eyepiece) anime references too, specifically among many Komugi's tendency befitting a cosplayer to suddenly appear in costume as a character from another show for a minute. It is, as a result, meant for a fan base that gets the references. It gets to the point "Nabeshin", the animated persona of anime director Shinichi Watanabe, makes a cameo a character that came to the West thanks to ADV Vision releases, especially Excel Saga (1999-2000), where his animated persona, synonymous for his red jacket with yellow tie and an afro, has an entire running side plot by himself. Merely a cameo here as a disgruntled anime director, he even name checks Puni Puni Poemy (2001), an OVA from this era which is a far more notorious work for its lewd humour and weirdness that managed to be banned in New Zealand. Some of the jokes here even had to be censored, in the Japanese dub and visually on a sign, likely because of crossing Japanese copyright, and in the first, probably referencing a real life case of an otaku who committed a horrible crime for a very sick joke.

Thankfully, within mentality of throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks, you get many which work. This mentality also makes Komugi unpredictable and, with an interest set of characters to work with, it manages to hit the mark a lot between its scattershot of jokes. You may not know about Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, the original version of the Tatsunoko animated series nor its Westernised Battle of the Planets version, but the joke where Komugi suddenly turns into a five person team and their elderly male mentor on a screen, duplicating herself, to ride in a super combat plane is still potentially funny because a) she is fighting a building, which was once for a comics convention, turned into a giant robot, b) because Mugi-maru spends the scenario completely baffled what the hell is going on, and c) with missiles on the plane too dangerous to use, this boils down to the tactic of blowing up one's plane and smashing it into one's opponent for a final move. The show is deeply silly, and for every joke which you do not get the reference for, or has not aged well, a lot are ridiculous and run for the strangest idea.

Surprisingly for an early 2000s title, it is still unfortunately relevant when the first virus monster turns people into internet forum members arguing over fetishes and getting into spats, only with less toxicity. You get a Speed Racer joke, but also a piss take of early computer animated anime where even Mugi-maru comments the frame rate has become broken mid-shot. Episode 3 devotes itself to Komugi being dead for most of it, due to truck, left to languish haunting her colleagues when they are grateful she is gone, and even having a new life become many new lives when she keeps dying. Scattershot is definitely the right choice of term for the show, among many with their manic tones I have seen over the years, but many of these titles as well have their own deliciously surreal mentalities you can easily gloss over if you watch a lot of anime. The show is aware of this as, for its end credit song, you have a bright female sung pop song but with nonsensical lyrics whose strangeness are part of its theme.

This awareness even comes with the way the show had to work around delays per episodes releasing, promising they will get the show out at a certain date or having a seventies giant robot parody with that aforementioned building-robot for an ending preview gag. There is even an Episode 2.5, which is effectively padding and its own special, an excuse for two music videos with their own distinct looks, but also in itself lovable. For what is a tangent, in terms of the show settling down and, set during Komugi and her colleagues working in a festival cafe, allowing for some character building, it adds to the unpredictable nature in its own sedateness. Eventually this is a show where every Japanese monument, set to a licensed Toho studios orchestral march, transforming into a robot or self defence weapon from a kaiju film to defeat a villain, including a scathing critique (even if fictional) of a building which collapses and is merely called a waste of tax payers' money. For ever joke which caused me to roll my eyes, so much revisiting Nurse Witch Komugi was funnier for me. Whilst as much of this is, again as mentioned, nostalgia, as much of that fondness in itself comes from this type of work, specifically as well these early 2000s OVAs, where in little time they do have their own quirks and idiosyncrasies if you were lucky to have had a good one licensed in the United Kingdom. It is with criticisms, but especially with interest in the 2016 television series, there was enough to appreciate on this return too.

#143: Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985)

Director: Gisaburo Sugii

Screenplay: Minoru Betsuyaku

Based on the novel by Kenji Miyazawa

Voice Cast: Chika Sakamoto as Campanella; Mayumi Tanaka as Giovanni; Chikao Ohtsuka as Birdcatcher; Fujio Tokita as Lighthouse Keeper; Gorō Naya as Campanella's Wife; Hidehiro Kikuchi as Young Man; Junko Hori as Zanelli; Kae Shimamura as Giovanni's Mother; Kaori Nakahara as Kaoru; Miyuki Ichijou as Marceau

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

Around 1927, Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa wrote Night on the Galactic Railroad. After his death in 1933, this was found unfinished. Four versions existed in an attempt to compile a final text, Night on the Galactic Railroad now held with immense regard. This adaptation is such a distinct and idiosyncratic production to watch that it had a significant influence on the other work that has dealt with Kenji Miyazawa. It was such an idiosyncratic production to watch even as someone who has seen some truly unique anime.

The best way to describe the film's plot is that of a young boy Giovanni, looking after his ailing mother, finding himself on the titular railroad, a train that travels into outer space which he rides with his friend Campanella, encountering surreal environments and predating Leiji Matsumoto's Galaxy Express 999 manga, which I'm not surprised is inspired by this novel. Three details need to be considered. One is that our characters baring one huge exception are anthropomorphic cats, a trademark that lasted even to a biopic of the author, TV special Spring and Chaos (1996). It came after the production struggled with trying to get the adaptation right, finding this idiosyncratic creative decision the right one in tone. Secondly, this is a European influenced work right down to the use of the language of Esperanto, a constructed auxiliary language that Miyazawa was an advocate of, learning it and even writing poems in the language of, laced in the film here. Thirdly, Night on the Galactic Railroad was written soon after the death of Miyazawa's sister. A Buddhist in belief, Miyazawa's text is meant for children but the anime itself is one of the starkest and symbolically surreal meditations on death, Giovanni eventually learning to consider the path of virtue to help all other human beings rather than lamenting the loss of a loved one, as Miyazawa himself went beyond mourning his loved one to wanting to help all in his acceptance of death.

The pace of the film, which only gets to the introduction of the train until the middle half, is intensely methodical. Between this and Mamoru Oshii's Angel's Egg (1985), this pace is completely different from most anime, a glacial nature that even when you get on the railroad is tangibly quiet as the other passengers, who can just appear and disappear with ease, are polite and curious about Giovanni. It is amazing to think that for most like myself, director Gisaburo Sugii despite being a veteran working in the industry since the sixties is probably the most known for director Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994), a fighting video game adaptation (and one of the only few with lasting currency). That title's reputation was probably made more significant as Manga Entertainment, releasing it, made a goal to sell the title as a cross over hit including acquiring a soundtrack for the English dub including the likes of Alice in Chains and Korn. This history for him is a perverse and jarring experience when you return to this title; both are well made, Street Fighter II one of the only well regarded fighting game anime due to its technical and plotting cohesiveness, but Night on the Galactic Railroad belongs to an entirely different area of anime, a hauntingly beautiful piece.

This is poignant as, upon reaching the galactic train, the journey is openly surreal and littered in symbology between a mass excavation of ancient bones, one Giovanni attempting to take away immediately dissolving into dust, to a catching of swans that break into pieces and taste of candy. To try to unpack the meanings, some obvious and others vague, is something to consider on future viewings. Like Angel's Egg, whilst Oshii's film is more openly surreal and exceptionally minimalist in terms of lack of dialogue, these two films from the nineteen eighties where money was available for creative freedom produced two utterly distinct productions to admire.

Of note is that the screenwriter taking on this task of adapting the source, Minoru Betsuyaku, is not from the anime industry but an influential novelist and playwright, particularly for influence the Japanese “theatre of the absurd” (fujori-geki). Choosing an outsider to tackle this material proved a wise idea as, from an entirely different perspective, he could structure the material in a way appropriate to express whilst the team at Group TAC had to visualise the material. TAC sadly no longer exists, since 2010, but as the company behind the cultural monolith that was Space Battleship Yamato (1974), they can at least have a lasting legacy alongside their other projects. Theirs is an odd assortment of titles over the decades, including that Street Fighter II film. Also Tokko and Black Blood Brothers, two series both from 2006 I have no good thoughts on in the slightest, so let's think on Night on the Galactic Railroad again...

[Major Spoiler Warnings]

Notably when human characters interact with our cat protagonists, the film takes a very distinct direction. It is implied heavily, as two children with a young man, they were on the Titanic or a similar vessel which sink in the ocean, giving the film an explicit them that the railroad is where the dead travel on, Giovanni having found himself there as a rare case as he dreamt on a grassy knoll and will grow as a person because of this vision. This is all heavy for what was meant to be children's literature, but also compelling with the virtue that the original text, whilst incomplete, had all this detail inside with a beginning and conclusion, this allowing still a profound message from Miyazawa to still be told in his own journey of grief. The film does end on a tragedy, but it is not a tearjerker, a calm and collected take on grief which in itself is tonally isolated in terms of how calm the story is for profoundness.

[Major Spoilers End]

Technically as well, a huge factor at play is the music, of its time but ethereal. Notable it is from a Yellow Magic Orchestra member but not Ryuichi Sakamoto, the most well known member who went into cinema, but Haruomi Hosono. Hosono's work here is absolutely appropriate for such an unconventional mood piece, which cannot be stressed enough, a haunting nature to match incredibly unconventional material.

The result is something to behold. I had fascination with this feature film over years since I had first heard of it, but really wasn't prepared for how unique the actual feature was. Notably the source material's influence is profound, even making its way to anime and manga, from Galaxy Railroad 999 to Kunihiko Ikuhara's Mawaru Penguindrum (2011) that explicitly references the tale, from a creator of equally unique stories, including the motif of apples which connects back into Night on the Galactic Railroad, those here able to be multiplied in one's hands to distribute to passengers. Such as lasting legacy of course, just for this film, is to be found in how the aesthetic choice of humanoid cats representing anything related to Kenji Miyazawa was followed on from, showing how much this film fully honoured and succeeded in its goal to adapt the material.

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1) The implied references to the Titanic in the film take on a greater, unexpected emotion when you learn the composer is the grandson of Masabumi Hosono, the only Japanese passenger on the Titanic who survived but was ostracised by the Japanese society in his time for not going down on the ship.