What are you Watching?

[ParaParaJMo]

Finally watched the first episode of Gundam the Origin. The actress to play Casaval, Tanaka Mayumi, also the voice of Krillin and Luffy does a great job of capturing Ikeda Shuuichi's peformance and putting it into a child. I am sure Ikeda Shuuichi must have coached her really hard in playing the character. Han Megumi, the daughter of Han Keiko, most famous as Lalah in the original Gundam series as well as Luna and Queen Beryl in the original Sailor Moon series plays the young Sayla/Artesia. I think it is good they selected her for reasons in relation to the legacy and to the characters. Ginga Banjou still plays Giren and still has the character. Unfortunately, Koyama Mami is not back as Kycila and Gouri Daisuke is not back as Dozle and their new seiyuus didn't feel right to me. But I can understand with Gouri Daisuke since he passed away. Hirose Masashi isn't playing Ranba Ral (ok, so the character is 11 years younger and looks it), but he did play the "character" in Gundam Builders and I felt it was weird they didn't even cast him as his father and Nakatani Yumi is not back as Hamon. I am a purest when it comes to seiyuus even in the original Japanese. I understand if the original seiyuu has passed or retired, but it doesn't feel right to me personally that Ranba Ral, Kycilia, and Hamon were re-cast.


I am sure I may open up to them in time like i did with Sailor Moon Crystal, but that was more forgivable since it was a remake to be faithful to the manga and the manga had a much different tone than the 1990s anime.


But as I said before, Char is not Char without Ikeda Shuuichi as Amuro can't be Amuro without Furuya Tooru.


I haven't read the manga in awhile, but I don't feel comfortable with the comedy aspects with Dozle's injuries. It just feels out of place considering the situation. But Yoshikazu, the director did the manga and was part of the original anime so I am sure he got Tomino's approval on certain things regardless. But with the first half of Double Zeta, Tomino was forced to make it comedic since he got complaints from viewers, sunrise and his own family that Zeta was too dark durings its broadcast.

[usamimi]

Oh hey, speaking of Gundam, it looks like G-reco is getting released on Gundaminfo officially. FINALLY!

[Drew_Sutton]

Just watched the trailer for Gundam The Origin earlier today; definitely going to try and check it out soon, especially with ParaParaJMo's fairly positive review. While I agree with the assertion of you can't have Char without Ikeda or Amuro without Furuya from the perspective of a hardcore fan, I am over all less attached to specific actors in specific roles. It sounds like the review is still positive though?

Today since I had some laundry to do, I decided to get through as many unwatched tapes as I could; all GallForce I got from the forums here. I'd seen bits and pieces before but it was so long ago that I might as well just consider this fresh watching.

[ParaParaJMo]

I am somewhat of a purist of purists. Since I live in Japan and speak Japanese, I just have no business watching dubs unless the it gets enough praise. And to me, certain actors in certain franchises with these characters have to be an absolute.

[llj]

Horus Prince of the Sun and Magic Boy. First time viewing.

Perhaps because Horus has such a spectacular reputation, I went into this expecting a lot more than maybe it could deliver. In many ways, it was as good as I hoped for, but in other ways--moreso on the technical front--I do feel that its merits, especially relative to the technical and artistic qualities of other Toei Doga titles before it (let alone the Mushi Pro animated films), are overstated somewhat.

The story is the best part of Horus. It takes the classic hero's tale and subverts it into something more. Hilda hijacks the film from Horus after she appears, which is justified since she is the highlight of the film from a dramatic and characterization standpoint. While her dilemma isn't anything particularly new in anime (classic family vs morality internal conflict), you can see echoes of Takahata's later work already percolating here.

The animation and art seems to get a lot of praise in anime fan circles, but to be honest, the production on the whole looks pretty rough around the edges. The action choreography *is* pretty terrific, but many scenes in general are done on 2s and 3s and can look a bit choppy. There's also the one short action sequence which is shown in slide show. It's well storyboarded, but I don't think the choppy look was intentional as some fans might claim it to be. I do think the well publicized labour and production issues documented around this film are the cause of much of the film's rather unfinished feel. The character designs lack polish and sometimes it seems a little TOO streamlined. From an aesthetic point of view, the film overall has a very utilitarian look to it. I suppose one could interpret it as being appropriate to the socialist and proletariat values the movie seems to espouse, but personally, I just can't put it among the best looking Toei Doga films ever made.

All this said, it's one of the most important anime films ever made and I'm glad I finally saw (and own) a good copy of it now.

Magic Boy/Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke was a bit of a surprise. I'd only seen short snippets here and there previously and I had an idea of what to expect, but the "bad" elements I was prepared for were actually not bad at all and the good elements were MUCH BETTER than I had expected.

I'd read a lot of reviews out there warning me about some copious cute animal hijinks, but all in all the cute animal hijinks are actually extremely minimal and almost never seem to hijack the main storyline (a problem which seems to happen a lot in Disney's 50s animated movies, especially Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty). In Magic Boy they are often used more as short, isolated breaks from the main storyline.

The artwork in this film is goddamned terrific. Warner Brothers Archive DVDs may be plain and no-frills as hell, but at least they grabbed a very solid print from their vaults to use to transfer to DVD. It's just bursting with colors and surreal touches, with the climactic showdown between Sasuke and Yakusha being an amazing showcase of gothic imagery and general visual badassery. I can't believe any American kid who saw this in a theatre in 1961 wouldn't be impressed or excited by this flick. Any American parent who refused to take their kid to see this just because it was a "Jap toon" were doing their kids a great disservice, in my opinion. In fact, what surprised me the most was just how action oriented it was. The amount of swordplay, magic action and "stunt" work is pretty frigging incredible for a film first released in 1959. I'd almost argue that this is the oldest animated film I've seen that I could categorize as a "pure" action animated film. You certainly don't get this much "pure" action in ANY Disney film, ever.

The animation itself ain't Disney quality fluidity, but it's at least on the same level as Warner Brothers fluidity. Some of the bad guys in this film look like those old Warner Brothers celebrity cartoon caricatures. The designs for Sasuke and the Yakusha the Evil Witch seem to reference kabuki plays.

The story is your classic Joseph Campbell hero quest with zero deviations from the formula but there's nothing wrong with that. There are so many movies that try to put their own different "spin" on the classic hero quest that it's just nice to see one follow the letter straight for once. I also like the fact that the dialogue in this film is pretty streamlined; it's much more a visually told film than a spoken dialogue one. You could turn off the sound and probably understand this film pretty well (although the soundtrack is pretty good, corny dub theme song aside).

So yeah, I really dig Magic Boy/Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke. I recommend the Warner Archive DVD, even if it's only the dubbed version on it (you can't expect much from the Warner Archive line, their goal is to simply put their overlooked films on DVD and that is all you get). It's still a great flick with a good transfer.

Oh, and watching these 2 films, I wish anime studios would go back to CinemaScope-ratio format again sometimes. It seems when Toei Doga's family-friendly anime films died, so did Cinemascope widescreen anime in general. Even Studio Ghibli doesn't have any films wider than 1.85:1. Not all films need to be 'scope widescreen, but you can't tell me that epics like Princess Mononoke or The Wind Rises wouldn't have looked great in 2.35:1 or wider.

edit: I posted an edited version of the Magic Boy stuff here for my Amazon review, just in case anyone out there happens to run into it (or vice versa) and thinks I'm copying someone else.

[SteveH]

I am at a curious place in my watching. The only two shows I'm following are Gundam Build Fighters Try and Yatterman Night. Very different shows yet seemingly both targeted at the same demographics. I guess.

Now, 'Try' is a second series, a continuation while 'Yatterman' is part of Tatsunoko's franchise refurbishment plan. That plan has produced wildly uneven results to my eyes, but at least they're trying.

Right now I have three episodes of Yatterman on my computer that I haven't gotten around to watching yet. Make that 4, the new one should be up now. Build Fighters Try I eagerly wait for and devour instantly as soon as I can.

I have no idea where Yatterman is going to go and normally that's exciting, but the effect has turned to tedium, drudgery. I'm watching it because I feel I'm committed to it.

Every episode of Build Fighters Try is a joy to behold. Every time a new 'easter egg' pops up (a Character, a MS, a throwaway line) I giggle like a kid.

So either I've turned into a child or there's just something I'm missing in Yatterman.

[greg]

Hey Steve, you know how you predicted that there would be a model of that ZZ Gundam-style mecha with the lion's head for a chest? You were right, and pictures are surfacing in this month's Hobby Japan and Model Graphix magazines. It splits apart too, naturally.

[SteveH]

Hey Steve, you know how you predicted that there would be a model of that ZZ Gundam-style mecha with the lion's head for a chest? You were right, and pictures are surfacing in this month's Hobby Japan and Model Graphix magazines. It splits apart too, naturally.

*HAW*

Now I'm glad I've got a little money put aside for just such a thing!

Because, really, what robot isn't made better by having a giant lion head on its chest? Daltanius agrees.

(of course the contrary part of me is filled with the urge to paint the kit in 'real robot' colors, maybe cover it with Kobiyashi-style graphics and decals from WW II tank kits. )

[Kame-Sen'nin]

I finally picked up seasons three and four of DragonBall Kai on Blu-Ray. I'm enjoying them so far, but I do miss the Kenji Yamamoto score that was on the earlier volumes (and many of the broadcast episodes).

[Animusubi]

Re-watching from the beginning The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, seasons 1 & 2, and finishing with the movie (which I think is the best part of the whole series). Brother hasn't seen it before, so we're watching it together.