#151 to #200 Retrospective: Final Part

 

A link to Part 5.

 

Best Theatrical Feature:

Honourable mention has to go to The Book of the Dead (2005), Kihachiro Kawamoto's puppet animated folk tale which I found a refreshing change of pace. Controversially, as much due to this originally being an OVA work, I confess that returning to Urotsukidôji II: Legend of the Demon Womb (1990-1) was a huge surprise. This was once, in this feature version, one of the worst things my younger self had seen, whilst in contrast to now, it is still problematic, as the franchise has been described in the previous notes, but is a compelling piece of dark fantasy. I would even go as far as say I preferred this to the famous original, which does feel its origins, which Legend of the Demon Womb as a side story, with the main cast, focuses on one story and, for the best and the uncomfortable, gets everything right.

There were two Studio Ghibli films covered this year. My Neighbours the Yamadas (1999) is an incredible film, a deeply underrated one in their filmography, but a nod has to be made to the ultra-obscure Ocean Waves (1993). A made-for-television production, it is not necessarily a well regarded work, but for me was an underappreciated production. The production mess, of trying to create a quicker animated production with the younger staff, does not detract from the compelling grounded drama. More positively held, though in need of a proper re-discovery, is Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003), a Daft Punk collaboration which knows its narrative is kooky, about an evil inhuman figure who wishes to gain power generated from golden record awards, and is ultimately in the final shot a beautiful ode to nostalgia. Both the music itself, to the decision to work with Leiji Matsumoto and his famous character designs, is meant to evoke the musicians' childhoods and, far from a navel gazing tangent, that album became legendary and this feature length musical spectacle is well regarded for good reason.

Perfect Blue (1997) is the obvious winner for me, but embarrassingly I have not talked about it a lot so far. This is all in spite of it this going beyond being a favourite animated theatrical film to being a favourite film of all time. Satoshi Kon's debut production is a compelling film, and a rarity even into the modern day of a psychological thriller, one which was meant to originally be a live action film but, due to fate, was able to take advantage of animation's ability to manipulate reality to its advantage. Perfect Blue if you have never seen it readers is a dark film, a really dark and adult film with content done with a greater maturity then a lot of edgy anime yet will make a viewer squirm. It is also exceptional - a film you need to see if you have not - which takes a genre very common in live action, can be done badly, and even embraces clichés, and became legendary.

 

Best TV Series:

One honourable mention has to be mentioned. She: The Ultimate Weapon (2002) is too flawed in many ways, and I can see this also being held as emotionally manipulative, bleak for the sake of bleak. But even with mind to the nostalgia of seeing the show at the start of my anime fandom, and even back then reacting badly to the ending, it has too many virtues for me to appreciate. It is a really brave attempt at something that is, yes, insanely bleak to sit through yet feel emotionally fulfilling if as naive as its teen leads.

Getting onto the list properly, I felt since they befitted each other as siblings, two sports shows which were secretly dramas in disguise, who should share this spot as dynamic contrasts. Hanebado! (2018) was the first seen; with no connection to the manga, and why the adaptation is a contentious one, this was pure sports related melodrama whose dark side, over-the-top in literally turning a liked character into a little damaged sociopath on the badminton court, really won me over. Ping Pong the Animation (2014), the brother to Hanebado's sister as a male driven sports drama, is also about a sport, ping pong, but decided to be a narrative about coming of age and trying to find oneself. The bleak moments were contrasted, alongside the show's eccentric style, by its lightness, as Hanebado could ease up and show fun too. The pair having to challenge each other in competition to see who was superior is a cruel thing to do; both are different shows, even if in the same genre and type, and they should have the spot together.

Eccentric, and idiosyncratic, should be the words spoken for Lupin The Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (2012), a distinct production that was ambitious at the time, and still looks so now. Dear Brother (1991-2) sadly is a show that will be restricted in how you can see it, which saddens me as it is incredible as a high school melodrama, effectively a type of shojo anime I have not covered until this, which won me so into itself. This felt like a new step in terms of a type of anime I saw, and it was magnificent, alongside the fact Osamu Dezaki, in the director's seat, made the show his own and made it incredible too. The good thing is that, whilst a limited Blu Ray release, we at least got one from Discotek Media, that it was available for streaming in the US, and the only restrictions now are more the manga's author Riyoko Ikeda, a living cultural institution, has a lot more control on her work and selling the rights on different terms than other creators. That aspect is not something to judge her for, as it is not suppression, especially as I have my fingers crossed that, the more people know of her work, the more will change. The Rose of Versailles, the manga and the anime, were made available in the West in the 2020s, so Ikeda is going to grow in reputation in the West which will hopefully open her interests to our side of the globe more. Dear Brother is the kind of title that will hopefully become more and more available as the anime fandom is more likely to embrace it. I know I did, and it was spectacular.

And it is interesting, whilst basing these titles on their target gender audience is narrow minded and incongruous to their audiences, how much this year was dominated by anime of different genres being dominated by women in the lead roles, based on work by women, or The Woman Called Fujiko Mine with women prominently in the production steering its direction. Even with shows still helmed by men, you can have Revue Starlight (2018), entirely an all-female voice cast and cast, barring a talking giraffe, which is still feminist even in mind that it is based on a larger media franchise.

Revue Starlight is a wholesome, emotionally rich show which has a boldness to be weird and outlandish whilst singing. I was legitimately caught off guard by how good this show was, but it does it not get the top spot only because I covered The Vision of Escaflowne (1996). Escaflowne is incredible, and again, whilst a show for everyone, is still a production taking mecha and fantasy and focusing on a female protagonist, with a romantic triangle and drama that is rich. The attempt at an explicitly male audience targeted spin-off, Escaflowne: The Movie (2000), could have worked, but for a variety of reasons, it also felt clichéd. It says a lot of the magic in Escaflowne in that, willing to be adult, it is also wonderfully sweet.

The strength of the series alone points out something distinct, that usually for these amateur lists, the Best Films usually close out these posts over the last seasons I have done them. Not this time, simply realising it was much more cooler, more spectacular, to close on the fact, as a heterosexual male anime fan, I can end these writings, ramblings or of merit, with the fact work involving women in the productions. Of strong female leads, and shows almost entirely about women, which dominated this year, and just the televisions series alone have such a diverse range of genres, art styles and tones.

Even with the fact this was the season I covered almost all of Urotsukidôji, and had to see its problematic content alongside still find virtues in them, really adds seeing the contrasts over the season too. There was some sleazy, objectionable stuff which, perversely, emphasised that whilst with undefendable content, Urotsukidôji looked positively high art compared to other productions I saw. I can end this season by saying, even as far back into the 1990s, you have shows about women, sometimes directly involving women in their creation, which are incredible and should be the way to end this amateur award over anything else.

 

End

The rest of this October will be horror based work appropriate for Halloween. Then we will get back on a role with a diverse range of titles.

Roll on to review #250.

#151 to #200 Retrospective Part 5

A link to Part 4.

 

Best Production

So many strong contenders existed in terms of the best looking and produced work, so much so even one of the disappointments from this season deserves to have a mention. The 2000 feature film reinterpretation of Escaflowne, dubbed Escaflowne: The Movie, is frankly a misguided project. Too short to have the scale of the original series, it was trying its hardest in a different direction, openly done to try to appeal to a male audience, of a darker and more violent work. Some of this decision, with the lead Hitomi not the bright and cheerily female protagonist but one tackling the subject of near suicidal depression, could be seen as outright blasphemy considering how good the 1996 television series was, but could have still succeeded. For me however, it failed because it never had the time and focus to take its different direction as far as needed. Only an insane person, however, would bash how incredible the film looks, which makes the failure more disappointing.

Also worthy of mention, which goes to show how strong the competition was, Perfect Blue (1997) is only now being mentioned despite being one of the my most highly regarded anime productions in existence; it may not necessarily be the most perfect in animation, but Satoshi Kon's debut is a legend as much for its atmosphere and how the film, in style and craft, creates a rare psychological horror narrative in the medium. Ping Pong the Animation (2014), in any other race, would be higher on the list with its "including the kitchen sink" approach, but considering Masaaki Yuasa is always strong in his work's aesthetic quality, he is considerable as God-like in this area. One unique work to get a mention now is Kihachiro Kawamoto's The Book of the Dead (2005). Not arguably anime at all, as it is a stop motion feature film with puppets, I feel however, any form of animated art from Japan should be covered. Adapting a Japanese novel, this is a glacial and idiosyncratic film, in tone and presentation, which really was different from anything I encountered; by the point of this film being created, working in the short film medium, Kawamoto was at a point of being a veteran and it is felt.

The actual top list does have to include Revue Starlight (2018) somewhere. The music is a huge virtue, but this is also a high budget television series, elaborate as it is surreal in look and style too. Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003), a collaboration between Daft Punk and Leiji Matsumoto, alongside Toei Animation and the film's director Kazuhisa Takenouchi, were going to make sure this cultural cross over was going to be as strong as Daft Punk's music was. Lupin The Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (2012) has also not been mentioned a lot, which is a shame as, with one of the few pronounced female directors, Sayo Yamamoto made a name for herself alongside Takeshi Koike as the character designer with a huge risk. When the Lupin franchise needed to change direction, she was influenced in her own directing by avant-garde and classical seventies aesthetic with the added surprise that, taking the erotic aspect that always came with Fujiko Mine as a character, as a fan service character and/or a femme fatale, she felt this was not a bad thing, could be feminist, and embraced the sensuality. (This is even to the point of an episode entirely riffing on Sapphic schoolgirls at an all-girls school transpires, as if the show was suddenly Dear Brother now). It is a contentious production aesthetically, the most on this list, due to Koike's black line heavy character designs and a style which for some may be off-putting, but in terms of a huge risk with a franchise at that point, this succeeded for me.

The Vision of Escaflowne (1996) is not surprisingly here. The 2000 film version is the most beautiful in terms of visuals, but Sunrise, the studio which produces the Gundam franchise, backed Shoji Kawamori's project tenfold. The music, the voice acting, the character designs, the mecha designs, everything is distinct in fleshing out this world onscreen as much as the narrative, everything here distinct and truly magical as a result. It only does not claim the prize as another theatrical film, only mentioned now, has to brought up as a unique production, being Isao Takahata's My Neighbours the Yamadas (1999). Not necessarily a big hitter in the Studio Ghibli canon at all, and actually a failure in terms of box office, Takahata decided to adapt a four panel manga and in doing so the production had to innovate in computer animation to depict a watercolour aesthetic. The film, alongside being criminally underrated, is an incredible achievement in animation and had to win the imagery award. Even within Ghibli's incredible back catalogue, only Isao Takahata again, with The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013), his final film before his death, made another film this idiosyncratic in look, and considering Yamadas was arguably a test run for that final incredible film, my appreciation of this charming gem grows more as a result.

 

Best OVA/ONA/Short/TV Special

To clarify for this year's version of this award, this is for non-theatrical and television series anime, to which this season was entirely dominated by OVAs, and in this case a fascinating window to the 2000s for the most part, where the straight-to-video medium of anime was frankly becoming less significant for a market as the decade went on, usually left as bonus episodes or additional stories for television series and other projects.

To clarify one detail, the Urotsukidôji franchise is contentious for me as the versions I have seen are the theatrical cuts of Legend of the Overfiend and Legend of the Demon Womb, so I did not qualify them. That does not mean this infamous franchise does not appear on this list however...

Possibly contentious for some is the brazenly softcore Futari Ecchi (2002-4), which is just nudged off the list, simply because it probably has more sex and nudity than in most fan service softcore shows or even hentai. Here is the thing however, baring one ill judged attempt at dealing with a plot, and clearly being targeted at a male audience, it is rare to have an anime which is this openly sexual, rather than not showing anything in more problematic sex comedy. It is a work with adult characters rather than teenagers, and adapted from a sex comedy manga written as much to provide relationship and sex advice, about a young heterosexual pair growing as a newly married couple. The two, despite being the stereotypical male lead, and the timid but busty wife, are likable characters whose growth is love for each other more and having a great sex life. As mentioned, it is not perfect, but the positivity here is something to admire from an obscure OVA.

More obscure, as Futari Ecchi (renamed Step-Up Love Story) had an American DVD release whilst this was a bonus DVD with manga in Japan only; Electromagnetic Girlfriend (2009), as mentioned already, has many problematic aspects I have stated. I have however been mentioning it a lot, and it is here because the premise and the tone was for me legitimately good. Only just needing to remove questionable and lurid aspects to its material is the issue, whilst everything else was a pleasure as a premise. Never mentioned until now, Animation Runner Kuromi 1 & 2 (2001-4) are a pair of OVAs which have a problematic aspect which they are just unfortunately burdened with, that we cannot now look at anything directed by Akitarō Daichi without knowing of the allegations of sexual misconduct he has disclosed against him during the time of the Speaking Out and MeToo movement². It is a shame to know someone squandered their talents through their reprehensible behaviour, as you are still stuck with the art itself. Animation Runner Kuromi is still a good short narrative, with a sequel which added to the material, dealing with both how stressful it is to work in the anime industry whilst yet showing the passion that keep people within it, played out as a sweet partially slapstick farce.

The following are also going to be contentious, but with varying reasons.  Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman (1994). Gautaman was an OVA I learnt of through the July 2009 episode of the Anime World Order, a show which is still going in 2021. The dumbfounded reaction by the poor female co-host, Clarissa, when assigned the title and the talk of the content, barely scratching the surface, made this is a perverse holy grail for context for my interest. It lived up to this even though, yes, this is not exactly a "great" OVA, just compelling one. Urotsukidôji III: Return of the Overfiend (1992) is contentious for the same reason the whole franchise is, but viewed in its OVA form with the Japanese language track, this for all its problematic content is still a compelling epic with little expectation but took me by surprise by what took placed over its four episodes.

Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan (2005-7) has no problematic aspects, and anything that feels taboo, sick and twisted is just because Tsutomu Mizushima had a taste at that point for misanthropy. Even whilst still letting the show have a sweet romance in its centre, it is a perverse sadomasochistic crush between a violent female angel and the male charge she is meant to prevent from becoming a pervert. It is a shame the second 2007 OVA series is not good, as it says a lot (even if separate rights) it was not acquired for the 2020 Discotek Media Blu Ray release. The first series, effectively a micro-series in OVA form, is a misbegotten yet compelling ride in dark humour. One running joke never mentioned until now in this writing is knowing, despite effectively being the antagonist, another female angel sent to kill the lead is still sympathetic and is a vagrant living in a cardboard box in the human world; it is more twisted knowing Mizushima was probably intending this (even with the sad end theme song from her perspective) to be funny.

Winning this, and not a surprise in the least, is Macross Plus (1994-5). Arguably, this is one of the best titles covered this year, and enough has been said throughout already, for how many times it has been brought up, to argue for this. To write any more after all I have said would be repeating myself - this is a title you, as a reader, should watch as one of the best examples of anime in any format.

 

To Be Continued in Part 6....

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1) Depressing to have to bring up in a post meant to celebrate, nonetheless the testimony of this is referred in the following article.

2) For anyone wanting to listen to that episode, it is Anime World Order Show # 81b, and for me is one of their best still even if a little profane at times.

#151 to #200 Retrospective Part 4

A link to Part 3.

"Guilty" Pleasures of the Year

"Guilty" pleasures is not a term I use, in that even with a work I realise is bad technically, my joy is always sincere. "Guilty" for me usually denotes, if the term has to be used, work which I find a great deal of virtue in but have undefendable content. Here, for this year, a lot of this is problematic gender politics or sex humour, with the top production on this a franchise where I completely understand if people held it as just offensive. All of them however are works for me with actual virtue, hence why this section has to exist.

Birth (1984) among them is not in this category however. Its sin is its strange and plodding pace. It is not a "great" production but aesthetically distinct and strange, it was a pleasing misfire. Closer to the above paragraph however is Futari Ecchi (2002-4), an erotic comedy based on a manga as much as sex manual for couples. Honestly the only reason it is problematic is that the final episode does skirt around its male protagonist's jealously of his wife taking a job not as well as it should, even if it does have other female characters call him out for this. Alongside being an early 2000s anime which has not aged well in animation, the only guilt really should be if you feel prudish about how much nudity and sex this non-pornography sex comedy has. It is for the most part a sex positive OVA, even if clearly made for a male target audience, which is charming and trying to be positive on sexuality in an admirable way.

Nurse Witch Komugi (2002-4) has to be questioned as the sex comedy is closer to that which we were mentioning in the first paragraph. The jokes of the cute bunny mascot spying on the female lead and her friends bathing has not aged well, as is the close up skin shots, but this is still a funny magical girl parody for me which got a lot right. Even another of its flaws, it's over reliance on anime references for jokes, does not undermine when it was funny. That this has appeared a lot throughout these articles so far does say a lot to how well it stuck for me in spite of its flaws.

Electromagnetic Girlfriend (2009) has many problematic points unfortunately. In the second of its two episodes, part of the narrative includes the male lead being falsely accused of touching a girl unwarranted on a train, which post-MeToo movement in more a contentious plot point to use when false claims of sexual misconduct and rape has been used to try to silence victims. One episode's plot point involves Stockholm Syndrome with rape, and both episodes involve mentally disturbed female characters as antagonists. In spite of all this however, all worthy to be questioned, Electromagnetic Girlfriend is actually a great idea for a longer work which I wished could have been fleshed out, with these attempts at being more adult which are to be questioned, or at least be more readily available as it is. Your lead is the typical, if more interesting, male protagonist, but you have an eccentric female lead claiming to be a reincarnation of a knight who will serve him like a king, whose mental faculties are questioned, to the point her young sister is tagging along in case he exploits her, but is frankly supernatural when she can suddenly appear when he is in danger or needs help to protect him. Taking the premise of these episodes of an odd couple having to tackle really grim mysteries - the first a serial killer horrifically targeting women when it rains, the other the mobile phone game which encourages people to cause real suffering to others in dares - a strange balance between the eccentric and exceptionally dark is here that worked, and is a great premise to exploit.

Much more problematic, yet with the fact there is an incredible lore and world nonetheless within it, Urotsukidôji is a difficult franchise to defend. I will not kid readers that, whilst it has so much that lingers, there is a reason this was such a notorious franchise people have a right to accuse as misogynistic, as unfortunately this was an incredible narrative lore with an uncomfortable transgressive edge which however had to be sold on tasteless content of a specific form. Only praising parts one to three, part one Legend of the Overfiend, viewed in feature form, is controversially for me a lot more flawed than the other two,  burdened with the fact that based on three OVA episodes, with different plot points, it feels bolted together.

It is also the biggest culprit for this franchise's notoriety, tackling rape and sexual violence in extreme form, even if censored for the UK releases, but for me more problematic in how, rather than if this was a transgressive narrative with an equal opportunity transgression, it is specifically meant to be in a scintillating (and therefore undefendable) way, alongside a gender bias where women are usually the victims and the men are not. It might not be defendable for many still it this was an equal opportunity transgression the franchise had, but you would at least have a work about the horrors of Eros combining with Thanatos that had not biases of its production to raise feminist objections too.

The first three parts, in spite of this, even in their censored British release forms have so much that as extremely dark fantasy that can be defended. An occult darkness where even Legend of the Demon Womb, which bring in Nazis and a ritualistic rape machine, feels less transgressive for the sake of it, in spite of the production's huge issues with depicting this content, but more befitting the context especially if you know how horrible and occult fixated the Nazis were. Alongside the fact Part 2 actually brings an emotional weight to the material, of even monsters having conflictions, and you can see where this franchise should have focused. Part 3, Return of the Overfiend, also jettisons another of the franchise's problems, bad English dub tracks, as we only got the Japanese with subtitled form in an obscure British DVD release; more so here, the need to sell this on misogynistic sexual content undermines the work, especially as he emotional weight and scale that could overcome the moments was completely winning me over with these.

After this part, Part IV: Inferno Road was butchered for the British release, but ended terribly in the episode we got, so is not among these in this. Urotsukidôji as a whole is truly the most "guilty" viewing of this season bar none, with enough justification for many to condemn it, but enough to admire. It is a flawed, fascinating work with reward but you have to fight with the failures it was stuck with in content too.

 

The Great Premises, Wish They Were Better Used Award

On the opposite scale to "guilty" pleasures, sometimes there are premises which you wish were used in better work, or at least fleshed out further. For an example, one of the things I covered this season was the OVA Judge (1991). It suffers from the fact that it is only a forty minute plus work which never got a follow-on, from an era of these titles being made with no endings, for a manga we never got in the West. About a figure who punishes the corrupt in business with the tortures of Buddhist Hell, it would have been interesting to see a follow-up just to wonder how this narrative would have gone if we got more than one episode. Another title about the fantasy of punishing business corruption, but with infinite money than occult powers used, Government Crime Investigation Agent Zaizen Jotaro (2006), whilst memorably ridiculous, does qualify as the first entry on this list. Imagine a really idiosyncratic, if still exaggerated, tale of a group tackling business corruption even in seemingly banal areas of the construction business. What we get is the cheaply made, deeply silly take which has a lot of talking and the lead saying "Da Bomb!" a lot of the time, which the show arguably settling down after the first few episodes.

Also worthy for me to bring up, because it is such a compelling little plot point within this barely long micro-series, is how Wonder Momo (2014). A parody of a sentai hero and magical girl narrative, based on an old Namco video game, the production behind this very little regarded fragment of animation is the really strange aspect, but not before I can rise up part of the premise I thought would have been inspired for a whole series. Namely, having the original video game character be the new heroine's mother, both given powers by aliens to fight other evil aliens and thus setting up an inspired idea, just from one joke, of a former heroine who can still fight grounding her daughter for fighting aliens without telling her. It is such a great idea but, alongside the show being part of a whole division of Namco they abruptly shut down just after its release, this is a show less than thirty minutes long altogether, so you cannot get anywhere with any of its narrative. Likewise, Cat Shit One (2010) as a proper adaptation, with Motofumi Kobayashi's manga telling the Vietnam War but with anthropomorphic animals, is a fascinating idea. Even an update in the second Gulf War, whilst potentially tasteless, would be interesting. What you got in actually got is just a thirty minute pilot episode which did not really offer much of interest beyond how weird its existence was.

If there is to be a proper ranked list for this imaginary award however, the fifth on here is the one title among the hand's worth I thought was good. Electromagnetic Girlfriend (2009), if you got rid of its problematic plotting choices in terms of gender politics, and kept all the good premise, could have managed to be a sellable franchise on very gristly mysteries that just happen to involve an odd pair as the leads. One loner male protagonist, an interesting eccentric female buddy who thinks she is reincarnated from a knight, and meant to serve him like a King, , solving gristly crimes that are constructed by a sense of whimsy in the lighter moments. It sells as a premise with the tone the production got here.

Everything else here is bad or a disappointment, Always My Santa (2005) likely to be held by many a terrible sex comedy set at Christmas thankfully forgotten. As a premise, however, I think we could have gotten something from this, with a male lead unfortunately named Santa meeting a girl who comes from a land of Santa Clauses, a female Christmas giving entity who has to still live a life after the 25th December. It is a funny idea to work with regardless, but the problem with those coming up is that they were more fixated on really bland romance and bad sex comedy jokes. Such an example, bad enough to be on top of the worst list previously despite having things I liked, is Akikan (2009), sold to me as one of the strangest premises of an anime about anthropomorphic soda cans who become women. If Akikan had bothered to actually be about this than a show which dithered back and forth, maybe we might have gotten something really compelling. Jettison all the offensive sex humour, remove the offensive gay stereotype, least keep one good character in the update, a presumed witch classmate openly crushing over the female lead to the point of defensiveness, and make a show even with a goofy premise actually about the premise. Sure, it would be about cute soda can women fighting over whether aluminium or steel cans are better, but there have been dumber premises which have likely led to hits.

Ben-To (2011) is in the same ballpark if just an average show for me. It is such a goofy idea in its centre, a world of people beating each other up in fights over discounted bento boxes in supermarkets, part of a curious form of a fight club, which it wins me over. The show is more interested in clichés of sex comedy, harem comedy and generic comedy however than just embracing its absurd premise. Both this and Akikan would benefit from jettisoning its bland male leads, keeping the female ones, more clearly lavished on even in eroticised ways and big proportions, and let the premises been as ridiculous as possible. More so here, as whilst Akikan is a cheap looking show, this stung as Ben-To had a budget for good fight scenes that were ultimately squandered. This section of these articles does emphasise how much having to sell to a male otaku audience - bland male leads to place themselves in, bad sex comedy jokes than good ones, no real desire to take a bonkers risk - has been such a crutch behind a lot of bland titles over the years even with good or least memorable ideas.

The unfortunate winner however is a show that had none of these issues to consider, no male leads, and could have even had less production value as that was a selling point to a previous series by its creator called gdgd Fairies (2011-13). As long as it had been what the selling point was, a farce lovingly going through the video game manufacturer SEGA's back catalogue, even if it was clearly made to promote their wares it would have still had mirth at their tantalisingly strange and diverse back catelogue. Hi-sCool! Seha Girls (2014) at first hits gold even if a viewer has no knowledge of these games, parodying the Virtua Fighter games with even a random cameo from the Sakura Wars franchise all in one fifteen minute episode. At some point unfortunately, this micro-series does not become unbearable but something worse, just average, by the point Sonic the Hedgehog has a two part episode felt unfinished as a premise. It is not necessarily having many episodes as possibly planned, but the real problem with many micro-series of not really having a lot of time but wasting what they had. Seha Girls even if pandering to a questionable premise, making a video game console we may have all had as children or nowadays, like my old Sega Saturn, sexy cute girls, does not even undercut a premise allowing for a healthy nostalgia and humour. (More so with Saturn treated as the fan service character to her chagrin by her friends). The issue here unlike the others, and why this is effectively the top prize winner in an award of disappointment, is that this should have been better than this.

 

Best Episode

Usually this is a positive award, but sometimes an anti-bonus title also has to be handed as an extra to emphasise when you get something wrong. The only episode of Urotsukidôji IV: Inferno Road we got in the UK is an embarrassment and has to be mentioned. Clearly part of a chapter of the franchise meant to last longer, it was a rushed conclusion which harmed the lore built up even in the first chapter, let alone built with good ideas from part three.

Not being included, though a great conclusion, is the final episode of Macross Plus (1994-5). It is not on the list just because, out of fairness, this imaginative award is for me for the obscurer titles and my little whims unless something really special appears. Macross Plus' ending is special, so it gets a mention here for being something so special it does not even need to be on the list. Even in mind that the 1995 theatrical version of the OVA does have additional scenes I wish were included in the superior OVA version, everything here is as good as you can finish a narrative off as.

Contrasting it is the paradox of something I have proclaimed the most disappointing anime covered this year, but inexplicably here. Having it on the list over Macross Plus is definitely a blasphemy, but this is a reminder that even in the worst I have seen this year, there was at least a nugget of gold. It says something to what a mess Akikan (2009) was that it can still have a memorable episode where nothing happens, episode ten called "Acknowledgement of a Never Changing Day" the glimmer of hope of the few good things in an almost entirely disastrous project. The female protagonist hangs out on a hot summer's day in an apartment, even if (as an anthropomorphic soda can) she has to fill a bathtub with ice; another, a child, plays games with toys in her bedroom; another learns the harsh lessons of doing laundry, when one is in spite of your cold demeanour easily is distracted by dragonflies and has to content with it suddenly raining outside. Sometimes, even in the worst of anime, good work is found and this had to be mentioned, which was as much why I started including the Best Episode segment in the firs tplace.

Usually it is for the slight joys, though this year does have some big hitters. One case however is for not one episode but an entire narrative arch. Otogi Zoshi (2004), a forgotten release from Production I.G., requires a huge spoiler warning to explain what it does for this to involve a completely different narrative arch. Here, the show pulls a genre and setting u-turn on its viewers. Sold initially as a Heian era set samurai narrative, I was pleasantly surprised when the rug was pulled under me and, based on who survived in the first half, the later half is set in modern day Japan with the cast reincarnated, having now to go through episodic supernatural scenarios which connect to events from the previous act. It is a good show, not great but a fun one, this second season turn, episodes fourteen to twenty six, as much in this delightfully unexpected turn the influence on my positive opinion.

Nurse Witch Komugi (2002-4) is here just for one episode, where its humour and even all the anime references make sense, which I like to call the "Komugi's dead" episode, but whose English translated official name, episode three, is perfect as it is as "Serious! Komugi Dies Two or Three Times?!   ". A really sick running joke to have begins this episode, where your lead is killed in the first minutes, predating modern isekai anime because it involves being run over by a truck. Alongside her colleagues at an modelling agency going on in their lives effectively glad she is gone, she also has to content with a monster fed on road rage, including a Street Racer parody which even becomes a piss take on early CGI model sequences in that era where the frame rate was diabolical. It is the best episode for a show some might find off putting for its bad sex jokes, but it is a funny, funny episode that I remembered from years ago, when I first dismissed this OVA series, and emphasised why I have ended up referring to this anime throughout these articles with positivity.

Revue Starlight (2018) is here less again for one episode but a narrative arch for a character nicknamed Banana-Chan. Huge spoilers are required again as, whilst every character is great in this show and get an episode devoted to them, an emotional gut punch is to be experienced when the most likable character, a big sister figure who got that nickname for her banana fixated food and even having her hair in twin ponytail bundles, turns out to have something more to her by episode seven "Daiba Nana". Here she is effectively revealed to be a villain but a tragic one for a legitimately good reason. A fear of growing up, and possible disappointment for others she cares for, willingly winning the tournaments central to the show so a Groundhog Day scenario of the same year playing over and over again transpires. Eventually when fate changes on her regardless, you are left with a sweet big sister figure that is emotionally vulnerable and still loved after everything turns against her original designs, as no one is a true monster and friendship still wins out. That, even in a show with a lot of plot points and moments still to get through with success, was a huge victory for the screenwriters and production team to pull off.

Pulling things off beautifully as well, Hanebado! (2018) is a very controversial show. The production decided, when adapting the source manga, to completely rewrite its female badminton narrative so the likable female lead became a psychologically damaged girl, due to her neglectful badminton teacher mother, who becomes a monster when brought back into the sport and shows her talents again. It did not go over well with the fans of the manga. I, without this baggage, found this a heightened melodrama, and whilst it may be cheating to use the final episode as the best, it is for one sequence. Episode thirteen "On the Other Side of That Net" is already a good finale by this point, with the other female lead involved, only for the show to suddenly have a moment of incredible aesthetic and experimental animation for a dynamic moment in a tournament final. It has no music, heightened use of sound, black and white line drawing, and is all incredible and a perfect way to end a show. Macross Plus has one of the best endings of an anime I have seen, but even if I had included it on the list, I would have had it share the top prize with Hanebado, a lesser known production that hits its peak in its final episode too. The Best Episode list is an indulgence but this is a case of something exceptional in this sports drama worthy of having a paragraph devoted to it, in that one section of the final episode has stayed with me all this time over the season even over whole anime titles.

 

To Be Continued in Part 5....

#151 to #200 Retrospective Part 3

 A link to Part 2.

The Lovepon Award for Voice Actor Commitment

The Lovepon reference is, admittedly, a joke reference to a notorious show, specifically as Tsutomu Mizushima has already been mentioned in these parts, his divisive horror series The Lost Village (2016). A bizarre misfire or horror parody, depending on interpretation, it was a tongue in cheek reference to "Lovepon", a character voiced by Ai Kakuma where she had to just scream "Execute!" over and over again, or reference execution in casual conversation. Yet, in mind to this joke reference, knowing how diverse the roles you can get in anime can be, this does not seem an insult to keep that title for this as, knowing how odd and sometimes a challenge this career can be depending on the production, this list is still a nod of respect to voice actors. Unlike the last, where there were nods to performances even in questionable productions, this is entirely great performances on solid and great shows.

Admittedly, in mind to Lovepon, being forced to act over the top and scream, especially in comedy, is a common occurrence in anime voice acting, so you could ignore Nurse Witch Komugi (2002-4).

At times a guilty pleasure, just for all the fan service jokes, you however have to credit someone like Yuji Ueda, who plays the perverted rabbit mascot Mugi-maru who does spy on his ally and Komugi in the bath constantly, for committing to the role even if the jokes are questionable. Haruko Momoi, who plays Komugi herself, though has to get the most credit for having to play a parody of a magical girl which is already a commitment, when the character is meant to be as incompetent and mean-spirited as she is actually reliable at her job. Momoi has the added factors however of playing her in the episode where she constantly dies, played for sick laughs, and the greater challenge of all the parodies the figure plays, as a cosplay idol in her day job and part of the OVAs' general humour. There is an extended Science Ninja Team Gatchaman parody which means Momoi has to play multiple versions of Komugi at once, as the four person team and even the old male scientist who provided the giant robot, just for a single extended gag, which even if she had been a veteran would be something to have to figure out to get the joke over, but was near the beginning of her career. Again, you usually do not think about the work required for even these really silly gag sequences, but that was one of the reasons I started included this section for my own growing self awareness of this.

The same applies for Tomokazu Sugita, Shinnosuke Tachibana, Jun Fukuyama and Daisuke Ono for Sekkō Boys (2016), but imagine as you will, dear reader, having to voice characters who cannot be animated with movement, with even facial expressions, and are literally stone faced as, whilst they are a boy band, the four main figures are stone busts of deities and historical figures who can yet interact with the world. You entirely have to commit to this silly premise, as they also happen to be a boy band, and make it work. The four male voice acting leads succeeded. On the opposite end of the spectrum, with the entire casts getting their dues in both, are two female-focused dramas which really show how important it is to get the emotional dramas right. Dear Brother (1991-2) is an incredible, under seen melodrama but, to make its thirty nine episode slow burn length work, as much of this relied on how good the acting was. Revue Starlight (2018) has the added issue, whilst only twelve episodes long, that you also have to sing. With only one male actor in the cast, playing a magical talking giraffe, Revue's female cast have a heavy weight to life between them of acting emotional drama, comedy and musical numbers, and it is just as successful.

For the top however, I have to have a joint award. Two great performances, one from someone in an English dub who would at some point leave the anime industry, someone only starting theirs and staying within the industry. If I were to namedrop Bryan Cranston, most would think of the Breaking Bad (2008–2013) series, and some may know him (as I did growing up watching TV) as the father in Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006). Cranston was once a working actor, varying between small roles but also working in anime dubbing. He, before leaving this aspect of his career, would arguably commit to one of the best English dub roles in one of the best English dubs made, to the point I would rather watch the English language version of Macross Plus (1994-5) than the Japanese voice dub, which is a rare thing for me having switched the originals with subtitles due when English dubs finally put me off in my youth in their varying quality. It is actually a strong cast anyway, Cranston as the lead alongside the future veteran Richard Epcar who commits to his role brilliantly too, but Cranston is such a fascinating shock. If you were not aware of this, to find once Cranston was in anime voice acting and bringing something magical to the role would be a surprise for many. One only hopes, now post 2020 Harmony Gold have opened up to their rights to the Macross franchise, meaning the original versions will be made more available in the West again, people will be able to access this OVA in a good quality and hear for themselves this. One only hopes too Cranston fondly remembers this time in his career too as, judging from this, it is not a surprise he gained the acclaimed he did in the future as he did just from a voice-only role.

Far more a challenge is that, with only a couple of roles in your career as a teenager, you are picked to play the main lead to a series when you are only sixteen, let alone also sing the main opening theme. Maaya Sakamoto is a prolific voice actress into 2021, including dubbing international films and video games, and also has a music career. Sakamoto as Hitomi, in The Vision of Escaflowne (1996), is arguably as much of the reason, as well as how well written and visually depicted she was, the character is one of the best female protagonists from any animated series. That potential burden of playing a lead that early in a career is a challenge, and yeah, in a cast of great voice acting, of great characters, all round that has to be handpicked out in knowledge of the production as a really incredible voice acting performance.

 

The CGI Bus Award for Strangest Moments

This title is also a reference to The Lost Village anime, where one banal (and mis-produced) prop, in how it was used ended up having a lasting strange influence. Usually this award is meant for the bizarre and delightfully unexpected, though ironically this year turned out to be surprisingly bleak, and requiring huge spoiler warnings, as a lot of the strangest moments were when bleak and sad plot turns abruptly appeared in the least presumed places, even in one show that you know is heading in that direction but was still peculiar to witness.

Genma Wars (2002) is not that, but there are too many reasons to mention here. I have already mentioned previously details, in an earlier part of these amateur awards, that were bizarre, like eating human children a common occurrence to the monstrous villains in this world, but never mentioned the psychic evil baby, nor the ghost ship of (crudely animated) CGI skeletons in the same episode about an evil computer with its own religious cult, nor countless other things I have probably forgotten. Genma Wars, if it was not also really badly put together, would have likely gained a legacy as a bizarre cult gem.

Lupin The Third - The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (2012) is here for the weird episode, which is a surprise knowing, in a drastic shift in the Lupin franchise at the time, this show looks unique and frankly surreal in what director Sayo Yamamoto was allowed to do, openly (and explicitly) sexual and insanely idiosyncratic in its art style and look. It says something however that, whilst the entire back half of the show could qualify for this segment, involving a nightmarish theme park and the titular Fujiko Mine having clones that start singing, one episode which is just a drug trip of back story gets the spot. Between butterflies and trippy imagery manages, to be deliberately and beautifully weird for a franchise which had already gotten as weird as far back as The Secret of Mamo (1978), the first animated Lupin feature film, really does emphasis the striking nature of the episode.

Less bleak too, actually for a legendary show that is beautiful and sweet by its conclusion, let us not forget that The Vision of Escaflowne is a masterpiece, but has luck enhanced blood and Atlantis as an integral part of its narrative. Shōji Kawamori, the man behind the project originally, would later on make creative choices on shows which may prove divisive - his ecologically minded show Earth Maiden Arjuna (2001) for me has been said to be so heavy handed in its environmental material it is misguided - but here it is wonderful that this seminal fantasy mecha show, of romance and epic drama, is also incredibly odd at points. I can say "luck enhanced blood" does not derail a segment of the show despite being bloody ridiculous as a concept even in context, all because this show manages to include such idiosyncratic content alongside its emotional scale perfectly.

Here we get to the abrupt bleak turns, and this does have to include huge spoiler warnings onwards. It may seem out of place to include She, The Ultimate Weapon (2002) as it is a bleak, strangely structured show already about an unending war with the outcome always likely the world would blow up. The context is as much my reaction to the ending, the choice for this, when I first saw this show in my early years of anime. As much as this is due to studio Gonzo, the creators, who were growing in production and releasing titles when I was getting into anime in the early 2000s, but was divisive for anime fans in that era for losing viewers with each later episode of certain shows, or having to create new story and endings, such as with the original 2001-2 Hellsing. That I had such a negative reaction to how abruptly everything was just destroyed, with your lead male protagonist left on his own with just his girlfriend Chise as a floating orb for the rest of his life. It is weird still, even in how odd the show is as a premise and tone in that, yes, whether well plotted or abrupt, this show suddenly crashes midway through the final episode with not just this, but giant waves everywhere, giant tech-bio tentacles, unexplained unless with knowledge of the original manage, and not just with this being the last love song ever. Only that manga's ending, with the female protagonist becoming a spaceship, would have made this weirder.

Birth (1984) is even weirder as a strange and sluggishly paced action sci-fi, with a comedic bent, in that it is set in the post-apocalypse and ends with its cartoon characters dying. The world is destroyed due to a comedic side character, a tiny robot, using the doomsday weapon despite everyone else beforehand trying to bribe him with sweets to not do so. Yes, that is appropriate weird.

Weirder, and also huge spoilers? Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman (1994) ends as sincerely as a show with classmate cannibalism can. In mind to this anime's perverse streak which gets uncomfortable at times, or its bizarre joke or points like its first henchman being a "scary newspaper delivery man", probably the weirdest thing is that this all ends sincerely. Where the titular heroine either has to not become the heroine one last time, or sacrifice being at the school and never seeing her potential love interest and friend, another girl in the school, again. Amazing to think such a perverse, bizarre show decides to go with this sad ending, with the chosen outcome, and somehow make that final scene actually emotional.

 

To Be Continued in Part 4....

#151 to #200 Retrospective Part 2

 

A link to Part 1.

 

Best Score

Usually I do not include pre-existing music in these lists I have done before, but it is a rare case for there to be an anime entirely designed around music, as was the case of Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003), a tie-in production for the seminal Daft Punk album Discovery (2001). This feature length animated production, involving the legendary Leiji Matsumoto, was designed around the album, originally starting off with a handful of musical videos for the first tracks, included here alongside the completely long play being depicted visually in a narrative. This is a great anime from the 2000s, and the album is a great one. It is only here as, to be fair, letting originally music have the higher spots feels more fairer, but this was an acclaimed album for good reason.

But, I encountered some great work this year, even with series that I was already a fan of. Ping Pong the Animation (2014) is an underrated Masaaki Yuasa production, literally a show about ping pong but also really a tale of young men trying to find themselves. It is easy to ignore in its incredible aesthetic style and the narrative that Kensuke Ushio's score is a diverse and inventive piece to match the show. Revue Starlight (2018), is as inventive but in a very different way. For starters, knowing this show is part of a huge media franchise, it is wonderful knowing, when adapting it to animation, it was allowed to be like Ping Pong an aesthetically rich show, also about young adults (girls in this case) finding themselves in a music academy. The difference to Ping Pong is that, whilst it would have been awesome in Yuasa's show it had happened, the cast do not play characters who sung in the middle of ping pong games as the female cast in Revue Starlight. Here, alongside the main score, you have the added aspect that, their emotional states depicted as weapon duels, Revue Starlight is also a musical among its many genres with a lot of singing. And all of it is great.

Admittedly, this was the year I covered The Vision of Escaflowne (1996) and Macross Plus (1994-5), so there is however an obvious figure who was going to dominate this. We can practically call this part of these amateur awards the Yoko Kanno award, as she is the composer for both and they are both legendary anime as much for their soundtracks. Escaflowne is a wonderfully diverse work in score, but if one has to come out on top, Macross Plus is as high as a bar as you get in terms of how good you can make music for animation. With the possible exception of Brain Powerd (1998), an attempt by Yoshiyuki Tomino post Neon Genesis Evangelion to make a mecha show in its shadow, I think every time I cover an anime Kanno was the composer or involved in a large capacity, she is going to dominate this segment in regards to anime scores. She is that good at her craft.

 

Best Song

Speaking of which, yes Yoko Kanno is going to dominate this list too, but we have some admirable candidates here too. Honourable mention has to go to "Cutey Honey" by les 5-4-3-2-1, for the OVA series New Cutey Honey (1994-5). This is specifically for the first version for the first four episodes, a catchy character based song which is, as pure pop, an earworm. les 5-4-3-2-1 sadly did not last a long time, disbanding in 1996, but with their work easily found on iTunes, a very idiosyncratic Shibuya-kei pop band fixated on older French pop influences that, thanks to this song, have now gotten a Western anime fan very interested in their work.

Another mention, as it was a re-review and thus cannot qualify, is Another (2012), an awkwardly titled anime which is still a peculiar mess but I have come to like immensely. As a Tsutomu Mizushima horror work, where his broadness in that genre is a factor to its entertainment, I have come to reconsider the show in mind to this. But I think no one should complain about its good aspects, such as "Kyōmu Densen" ("Nightmare Contagion") by ALI PROJECT, a delightfully morbid ditty from the lyrics alone let alone its nightmare carnival sound. Even the opening credits animation, full of grim reflections of the real violence that you will see in the show, matches the words perfectly. Not surprisingly, fitting the material, ALI PROJECT is a rock band which fully embraces a gothic aristocrat onstage persona in the costumes, so the show found the perfect musicians to get the tone right. Sadly, the anime version does not include the brief military drum-like bridge, but again with their work easy to find, a fascinating band is now opened to me here.

Everything else that got on the list is, frankly, a heavy hitter. Starting off, for example, entering the world of Dear Brother (1991-2), as angst ridden as you can get for a high school melodrama, fittingly got Kin no Utsuwa, Gin no Utsuwa by Satomi Takada as the opening credit song. With instrumentation like glass, literally at points, with lyrics as bittersweet to match, this is a perfect entry for each episode.

Closing out each episode, She: The Ultimate Weapon (2002) is a deeply flawed show, at times grim for the sake of grim with an odd and at times unwieldy premise, of a romance in an unending war with a girlfriend who is now a war machine. Nonetheless, I will argue the one perfect choice was Sayonara by Yuria Yato - an utterly beautiful song for a show which is told, and does not pull its punches upon, as "the last love song in the universe". The guitar solo is an odd choice in the full version, but the orchestral bombast is in itself beautiful to say the least.

Contrasting this, but still emotionally rich, is Bokura ni Tsuite by merengue, the first version the best but all versions good, for Ping Pong the Animated Series (2014). Life affirming, with its poppy electronic aspect, is the best way to talk of the song, befitting a feel good show which is yet about young men finding themselves.        It is as distinct and eccentric in its full version as the shortened version in the Masaaki Yuasa show.

The Vision of Escaflowne (1996) is going to be evoked with this aspect later on, when I get to voice acting, but in both cases, yes Yoko Kanno is a huge virtue to the show, but the opening song "Yakusoku wa Iranai (No Need for Promises)" by Maaya Sakamoto has to rely on its vocalist too. Whilst she would become a prolific voice actress and singer in her career to the modern day, it is striking for me to know, with little work beforehand, a sixteen year old was not only cast as the lead female heroine, who the show is entirely about, but also the voice actress also sung the opening song alongside one or two insert songs. Yoko Kanno's music on the song is incredible, but a perfect vocalist for the song with the perfect instrumentation probably makes this one of the best songs for an anime opening, for one of the best animated series ever made least for myself.

And it only does not get the top spot because Macross Plus (1994-5) has not one but two incredible ending songs with Yoko Kanno's involvement. Even the English dub version of one for me is incredibly good, just to show how good the music was. As Escaflowne is actually a fantasy mecha show about giant sword fighting robots, but is about romance and drama, this is a sci-fi action show with robots which transform into planes but, set around a romantic triangle of the central cast, this is a pulp genre narrative given the gravitas and emotional heft of a great tale. The music is a huge part of this, and "After, in the Dark" by Mai Yamane, and Voices, either the original by Akino Arai, or for me even the performance by Michelle Flynn for the Manga UK release done in English, are two haunting end songs, one for three episodes an epic, the final episode ending on a haunting ballad which the lead heroine has as a motif. Together they are a huge thing for any anime to have in terms of leaving a lasting mark. 

 

To Be Continued in Part 3....

#151 to #200 Retrospective Part 1

Part 1

Another fifty reviews have passed on this blog, from reboots of legendary franchises to despised Christmas comedies, and it feels best to recap through them all. Rather than attempt a protracted monologue, beyond being glad this probably took less time than in previous cases to get to two hundred reviews, it is best just to let the choices (between Lupin the Third - The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (2012) (#151) to New Cutey Honey (#200)) speak for themselves...

 

The Most Disappointing (and Dubious):

Admittedly, we should probably begin with the failures and the misbegotten, as unfortunately not everything in this medium of Japanese animation succeeds. In this case, weirdly, I have titles on here which are yet compelling and with get nods later on in these imaginary awards, but this season of reviews was a case of the more banal and bland titles dominating most of the list. Unlike some of these, or other years, where argubly the titles which never get mentioned at all even for negative reasons should be viewed as the worst in their blandness, this year had more of these examples instead.

Not able to qualify, as the version covered was the censored UK DVD release which had the first two episodes banned by the British Board of Film Classification, Urotsukidôji IV: Inferno Road (1993-5) just for its final episode would been a strong contender for most misguided direction to go for a lengthy franchise by that point. Ending having hastily covered a lengthy lore prepared in Urotsukidôji III beforehand, and even the franchise from the infamous beginning, it felt like this OVA sequel had planned to be longer but had to hastily finish, thus ruining even the first in the series let alone its predecessor. I have not yet gotten to the unfinished attempt to fix this mistake, Urotsukidôji V: The Final Chapter (1996), so this tale attempted to steer everything back on course; it is not a spoiler, even without covering that entry, that considering it is an unfinished one episode pilot effectively, this franchise which is legendary even if problematic ended as miserably as you could get.

A lot of this list, as mentioned, is forgettable, which can be argued for being worse in that they do not contribute an argument even against their existences in terms of work, let alone positives. Mangirl! (2013), is as flimsy as you can get in terms of a micro-series, less than fifteen minute episode works. A narrative about an amateur all female team wanting to create a manga publishing house, it has an interesting idea but is more a bland show to be cute. Always My Santa! (2005), an adaptation of Ken Akamatsu property, the creator of Love Hina, was just a really bland Christmas comedy, one of the only few, which was just a lot of clichés. Disappointingly, to be found on this list, is Amagami SS Plus (2012), a sequel series to something I liked. The original Amagami SS (2010) can be accused of its questionable premise - based on a visual novel, it has parallel dimension storytelling based on various separate narratives following a different girlfriend, which could be seen as just a more hypocritical take on the harem fetish of multiple girlfriends - but it was actually a fun show whose unique structure actually proved unique. I may return to the Plus sequel series and find more worth in it, but it felt like bonus padding to a show which was fine as it was.

The top two are special, arguably, twisted, works so bad in many ways, and neither defendable in their varying sleaze, which are fascinating for even existing. Well, for one, it is technically two porn anime for the price of one, Gonad the Barbarian & Search for Uranus (1986), in their dubbed English forms as done by an adult film company. Gonad the Barbarian is arguably the only one of the pair compelling enough to go out to watch, just for the English dub and line changes from porn producers turning it into a sex comedy farce, but it is still bottom of the barrel scuzz. Paired with Search for Uranus, which was a stroll into the tentacle related waters of pornographic anime which was just not pleasing to sit through, even if with a curious atmosphere, and both arenot defendable anime at all even as guilty pleasures.

And then there is Akikan (2009), which for Number One (Bottom One?) would have gotten here if I was just writing about the bonus OVA episode. That episode was just a barrage of the worst and the most questionable clichés hitting with all the worst impact, worse as, merely a bonus set at a hot springs which, even without any actual nudity, is just about characters blushing being seen naked, managed to hit a level of wrongheadedness that was depressing to sit through. Akikan the series proper is going to be one of the oddest things to talk of this season of review because it is going to return, as a show which does have moments I actually like, but has to be declared the worst of the season for how misguided and a mess it was.

That is a paradox, and I openly admit that. This is such a mess that emotionally it is a nightmare to figure out my stance even though, by gut instinct, it has to be here. This is a show sold on a very surreal premise, soda cans who turn into women, that never actually gets around to this nor the bizarrely existential nature it suggests with said premise, more of a thing stuck with whilst the show hastily improvised. From the get-go, you have bizarrely a show getting the worst prize here that had a great episode, of three of the soda can girls just on their off-day in a vignette episode, yet claims this prize with so many justifiable reasons. Deeply inappropriate sex comedy, one of the worst male leads possible, a predatory gay male side character as a comedic foil, never getting around to a premise of soda can women fighting in matches to determine if aluminium or steel cans or superior, never gets around to the existential issue of their original disposability, nor that they are owned by their masters, and an abrupt turn for a light hearted show where one soda can girl nearly impales the lead in the stomach outside a baseball stadium for jilting her master.

Even the paradox that I can find good moments in this show, like the female witch side character who is openly gay for the female lead and does dress as a witch on Halloween, does not defend the mess this was, nor the tasteless material that would not be defendable even in a late 2000s anime. It has to be placed here, and it is not even a guilty pleasure. It is just a compelling mess.

The Weirdest

Deciding to go for paragraphs than a list, unlike previous years, does help in this part especially, always the longest section because I openly admit a taste for the weird, this time especially appropriate to split this up into multiple paragraphs as there are multiple categories.

The first are the bad which are strangely compelling. Akikan, as mentioned, is so bizarre in spite of it never getting into full swing with its already bizarre premise, anthropomorphized cute can girls, because it decides to jettison its plot of can girl fights, become effectively a sex comedy instead which delved into moments of sudden darkness, including a soda can girl antagonist who robs the souls of opponents, and goes about it with really tasteless and undefendable moments. Genma Wars (2002) is also in this camp - a second attempt to adapt a collaboration between sci-fi author Kazumasa Hirai and manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori, after the really divisively held 1983 Rintaro feature film Harmagedon. Even without the animation for this early show clearly struggling with a tiny budget, you have a mess. Some of it is also undefendable, with a trigger warning now to mention that rape does appear in the show a great deal, including from a male protagonist you are meant to root for, but also you have sentient monkeys on a satellite orbiting the Earth, the discovery in a world where monsters rule an apocalyptic Earth that children's brains are a delicacy, boys more spicier than girls, and too much to even get written down in the original review. Mad as a box of frogs was apt as a description for this viewing experience.

You can argue Birth (1984) is also bad, a peculiar experiment from the eighties, when money was available in the anime industry, but I would argue it is more a fascinating curiosity which just has huge technical flaws. A feature length action sci-fi narrative, it is beautiful to look at, but also possesses a very peculiar pace which is the biggest issue for many. It is also a cartoonish work with a lot of comedy yet has a very bleak ending. It is a really odd title, a true one-off. Likewise, Government Crime Investigation Agent Zaizen Jotaro (2006) is not a good series, an ultra low-budget animated series where your main protagonist's super power is a credit card with unlimited credit, and his enemies are corrupt businessmen and an occasional yakuza backing them. This is weirder in terms of premise because of taking such a banal scenario and trying to make it dramatic, business corruption as a dynamic show where your hero is still a bad ass who is slick, quotes Shakespeare, has every women fall head over heels for him, and says "Da Bomb!" randomly. It is equivalent to Salaryman Kintaro (2001), a better show where a former biker gang leader ends up trying to work in the construction industry, in that anime as an industry has been able to have much more idiosyncratic and obscurer premises be adapted, this among them as a weird curiosity.

More obviously weirder is Sekkō Boys (2016). It is a gag as a micro-series, where a young woman who was made sick of art decides to become a manager of a boy band, only for the boy band to be statue busts of real figures - Mars, the Roman God of War; Hermes, a Greek God; Saint George, as Saint Giorgio here, a real life saint in Christianity and Islam; and Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, an Italian nobleman and ruler of Florence, who is the young heartthrob. They can talk, sing and interact with the world, but have to follow real world logic of having to be carried around and be heavy. It is still a weird premise even if openly absurd, including Roman general Marcus Junius Brutus and French playwright/poet Molière being a veteran musical duo the main leads idolise, or Saint Giorgio having a bad habit of Dad an jokes.  

The list proper, of five titles, may not begin to sound as strange as the likes of Akikan or others, but sandwiched between them and two of the strangest I have ever encountered in the top two, the other three are as much context based. Some viewers may find it odd, for number five, She: The Ultimate Weapon (2002) is here. If you are old enough, like me, to remember this show was a heavily promoted title in the United Kingdom for Manga Entertainment, in their early 2000s period of trying to expand out beyond their nineties heyday with television series. She, or Saikano, if you stop and think about it however, was a bizarre premise even if its plot and ideas have been seen before and since in other narratives. A teen girl is turned into a living war machine, a David Cronenberg approved one, yet the show is a bleak romance. The war is a never ending one, with unknown enemies, with the show not pulling away from the fact this is frankly the end-of-the-world scenario. Even in mind back in the day I was turned off as a young anime fan by how abrupt and apocalyptic the ending was, all in hindsight is a deeply strange work just for tone and how it goes about this, as a bitter sweet tragic romance against an almost Kafka-like war scenario, where nothing makes sense barring to still fight, to the entire sense of this being an actual romantic drama, as at times naive and overbearingly bleak as it gets for a teen cast. It is only less strange knowing your female protagonist Chise turned into a spaceship in the manga. That by itself could have been even weirder in hindsight to consider.

As for Numbers Four and Three? Two mere snippets of ideas, abruptly never getting anywhere, and that is in itself as strange for varying reasons. Cat Shit One (2010) has a pedigree, that its source material is the work of manga author Motofumi Kobayashi, who throughout his career is an author of realistic narrative dealing with the likes of the Vietnam War and other conflicts, yet in his most famous work abroad decided to make realistic war stories, including set in Vietnam and a sequel in the first Gulf War, with anthropomorphic animal soldiers. Cat Shit One the anime is stranger, set in the post second Gulf War of the 2000s, by being entirely like war actions films like Black Hawk Down (2001), but with anthropomorphic cute rabbits as American soldiers. Never mind the politically incorrect Arabic camel soldiers, but rabbits with sniper rifles, told seriously without a sense of humour, is weird and more so as this one-shot was meant to be a pilot for a television show, one based around motion capture where actors had to act out these characters first, and that it never led to anything.

And yet Wonder Momo (2014), whilst a conventional premise in comparison, is weirder for what its production history was. Bandai Namco Holdings decided to create a subsidiary called ShiftyLook, a Western side, to revitalize old videogame franchises from Namco, starting with web comics for the likes of the 1987 game Wonder Momo, a female sentai hero parody. Dusting off the Wonder Momo game, the micro-series and the web comic were set in a world ultimately revealed to have the daughter of the original heroine become the new hero and fight aliens. It is pretty obvious material, but alongside now having the hardback copy of the web comics, one of the few published of the original project, proudly on my bookshelves, this does have a tantalising premise - not a lead who wants to be a musical idol but is also a heroine, but the idea her mother was the original lead, and that both mother and daughter can be heroines, alongside a rival, and have the post-fight talks afterwards of a family relationship for potential comedy and dramatic gold.

Where I will argue the work for me is truly weird is entirely its production history, one of the strangest and tragically abrupt you can get. In February 2014 the animated adaptation is premiered. There is hype, even a Q&A added onto the Crunchyroll streaming service alongside the show, but only two years after its founding in March 2014, just a month later, ShiftyLook themselves would be closed down by Namco. The show does not even have a true ending, and is far too short as a micro-series to get anywhere, negatively held if you look up ratings of viewers, with only one volume of the web comics published in hardback form, and never heard of again. That for me is just as strange as any premise for an anime.

Undeniably, the final two in this list are weird, not for background detail, just truly bizarre. Number two is Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan (2005-7), specifically the 2005 OVAs, the first season, as tragically in 2007 four pretty generic episodes were created which felt like bonus fan service than continuing with the impact the first had. Tsutomu Mizushima is a director known for comedy in the current day, and his really divisive dabbling in horror, but he has a background in some really misanthropic and perverse comedies from his earlier directing days. Dokuro-Chan is the most notorious, it's really twisted initial plot, a teen male who is deemed to create something to prevent women from aging from their young teens, and a female angel called Dokuro sent to kill him who decides instead to hang around and hopefully change him, becoming a springboard for something more bizarre. The gore, as she has the ability to resurrect the male protagonist every time she explodes him with her giant spiked club, is notorious, as he dies many times just in a single episode, but this is comedy at its most over-the-top. The mis-reference to Franz Kafka earlier on is apt as, for the hell of it, the protagonist from The Metamorphosis, Kafka's most famous written work, makes a cameo, but not in concern of him waking up as a giant insect but more concerned about his erection. It is really juvenile humour, the tropes of anime sex comedy rife, and jokes like stealing an angel's halo forcing them to be burdened with unending diarrhoea, but with this, it is always funny because of how mean and twisted it is. Even the opening theme song, a cute ditty, is about the many ways Dokuro-chan can mangle the protagonist in their sado-masochistic crush.

Yet, preventing Tsutomu Mizushima from getting the award again, as his later (unintentionally weird) horror series The Lost Village (2016) was bizarre in another way, a very obscure OVA exists called Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman (1994) and, if you can find the masters and re-release this, a company like Discotek Media could market this as the zenith of weird. Similar to Go Nagai's Kekko Kamen in structure - a school terrorised by an evil group, the heroine keeping a secret identify of a sexually provocative hero form, in this case one involving a sumo belt with a ridiculous costume and a posterior fixation - Gautaman is nonetheless Number One for how strange it gets. You need part two, of this two part OVA, to really get the impact and it is something to be dumbfounded by when you reach it.

A sumo with a Darth Vader helmet is nothing next to a Ninja Turtles parody, which leads to possible student on student cannibalism, or the Terminator parody so accurate it may make the show difficult to release unless the parody law is evoked. The perversity grows in context in the second OVA, alongside the strangest aspect, how this takes itself seriously. You have what, at first, is just pandering in a romantic relationship with the heroine and her female Hindu friend, which leads to a fan service sequence of sharing a bathtub, but that is taken serious in the conclusion. The war, on a campus of religious study, with the Black Buddha group has a potential romance with the male protagonist, which is also taken serious as they are on opposite sides of good and evil, but with the added factor that he also happens to have a tree trunk between his legs just for a random visual revelation. And that, for all the perverted, tasteless and just weird content you have here, this ends as bitter sweetly as it does, which will be gotten into later, just took me by surprise even knowing of this series for a long time. Finally able to see the whole thing, this is as weird as you can get.

 

To Be Continued in Part 2....