Your best and worst anime based on a video game

[Captainbubby]

So far, the most accurate-to-the-original game I've seen has to be Wizardry.

I actually really enjoyed Wizardry for its insane level of fidelity to the original property; To the extent that its almost a comedy. The anime is definitely aware of how audacious some of the concepts depicted are (yet perfectly acceptable in a gaming context) yet was full-steam-ahead on being completely faithful.

Given that Wizardry creator Robert Woodhead would later create, "AnimEigo", this adds, an interesting type of intertextuality we don't often see.

Also, note Colony Drop's great little entry on Wizardry. Robert Woodhead actually posted in the comments section!

http://www.colonydrop.com/index.php/200 ... dry?blog=1

[greg]

I spent my weekend playing a bunch of Sega Saturn games. After making the "100 Super Famicom Games in 10 Minutes" videos and a "100 PC Engine Games in 10 Minutes" video, I wanted to make a "100 import-only Sega Saturn games in 10 minutes" video. I've actually been working on this video for nearly 2 years, working on it simultaneously with the 3rd Super Famicom video which I completed in April or so of this year. I'm nearly finished with the game!

So anyhow, I started playing the third Galaxy Fraulein Yuna game. The first two games are on the PC Engine (and also in a compilation for the PSP), and they are graphical text adventure games (Snatcher-style games, in which you use menus with commands like look, talk, investigate, pick up, etc). There is a remake of the first game on the Saturn (although I think maybe it also includes the 2nd game; I'm not sure) and the Saturn is also the home to the third game in the series. It is a departure from the first two games and it is actually an isometric view strategy/tactics/SRPG game. I played the first three or four battle scenarios in order to record a few seconds for the video, but I realized that nobody has uploaded any real gameplay footage of this game on YouTube. Some guys had uploaded just the intro animation, but that's all. Maybe I will make a video of the first few scenarios or so for everyone.

ANYHOW, bringing this message on topic, after playing the game a bit on Saturday, I decided to watch the Galaxy Fraulein Yuna DVD. Apparently this takes place after the first two PC Engine games (there's reference to Yuna saving the world twice in the first episode or so), but before the third game (looking at the copyright dates, the Saturn game came out a year afterwards).

The anime is cute, as I expected. I don't pay much attention to voice talents other than usually just recognizing their voice, but Chisa Yokoyama is one of the few that I am fond of. I saw her once at the 2001 Tokyo Game Show for Sega's Sakura Taisen presentation. Red Company actually made both the GF Yuna games as well as the Sakura Taisen games. Yokoyama's voice fits Yuna's character well. I guess the show isn't too hard to follow along without having played the games. I wasn't familiar with all of the characters, so when Yuri the girl with the enormous appetite was said to be an android, I just thought, "Oh, well, I guess she's an android and that would explain how she can eat so much." In all, it is a cute 5-episode OVA with some cool battle scenes, robots, and space ships. Since the games were never released outside of Japan, it makes me wonder why ADV released the Yuna OVAs. However, the anime stands on its own, more or less.

My daughter fell in love with the show. Seeing cute girls kick ass makes her happy, and I'd have to say that it must be more exciting to watch than predictable Precure. She still hasn't seen the final episode though, in which Yuna's new android friend is killed by the android's evil older sister by ripping her robot heart out from her chest. That may be a bit shocking to a five year old kid.

[usamimi]

ANYHOW, bringing this message on topic, after playing the game a bit on Saturday, I decided to watch the Galaxy Fraulein Yuna DVD. Apparently this takes place after the first two PC Engine games (there's reference to Yuna saving the world twice in the first episode or so), but before the third game (looking at the copyright dates, the Saturn game came out a year afterwards).

The anime is cute, as I expected. I don't pay much attention to voice talents other than usually just recognizing their voice, but Chisa Yokoyama is one of the few that I am fond of. I saw her once at the 2001 Tokyo Game Show for Sega's Sakura Taisen presentation. Red Company actually made both the GF Yuna games as well as the Sakura Taisen games. Yokoyama's voice fits Yuna's character well. I guess the show isn't too hard to follow along without having played the games. I wasn't familiar with all of the characters, so when Yuri the girl with the enormous appetite was said to be an android, I just thought, "Oh, well, I guess she's an android and that would explain how she can eat so much." In all, it is a cute 5-episode OVA with some cool battle scenes, robots, and space ships. Since the games were never released outside of Japan, it makes me wonder why ADV released the Yuna OVAs. However, the anime stands on its own, more or less.

Well, they originally released it back in the days of companies licensing anything they could get their hands on (the first VHS was in 98, I believe)--so it wasn't the first time someone licensed something based on a game/franchise that wasn't released in English. (I mean, hell, they released Sakura Wars here before any of the games...even though people seemed to want them. It took forever for them to release one here.) Another whacky example: Media Blasters decided to pick up one of the "Graduation" anime titles based on the PC game that--shockingly enough--actually was brought over here by Mixx/Tokyopop. But instead of releasing the anime they did based off the plot of the game, what did they do? They licensed the SECOND anime they did that was supposed to be a crazy parody called "Sailor Victory" where all the students are piloting giant robots. Which, on it's own, barely makes any sense...it's supposed to be funny because it's a ridiculous parody/alternate universe thing of the original...so of course it bombed big time. Why they decided to pick up that and not the original anime they did, I'll never understand.

My daughter fell in love with the show. Seeing cute girls kick ass makes her happy, and I'd have to say that it must be more exciting to watch than predictable Precure. She still hasn't seen the final episode though, in which Yuna's new android friend is killed by the android's evil older sister by ripping her robot heart out from her chest. That may be a bit shocking to a five year old kid.

Aww, that's cute that she liked it so much! But yeah, I'd definitely wait until she was a little older for that last ep...

[greg]

Another whacky example: Media Blasters decided to pick up one of the "Graduation" anime titles based on the PC game that--shockingly enough--actually was brought over here by Mixx/Tokyopop.

I remember that! I never played it, though. They also tried releasing Gainax's Princess Maker game for the PC in English. My friend gave me a copy of it. IIRC, it was set to be released for sale, but they decided not to release it in the end. So there was a working copy of the game (MS-DOS-based, I believe) that floated around the Internet among anime fans. I believe it was Princess Maker 2, which was available for the PC Engine, Sega Saturn, and DOS-V (Japanese DOS, in other words).

About Sakura Taisen, there was a HUGE push among fans to get it released in the USA. Sakura Taisen for the Saturn was a real sensation in Japan, and there was an online campaign to petition Sega to release it. But NO, Sega of America at the time only cared about stupid sports games, yet they were simultaneously pissing off EA Sports among other developers. I believe it was MC Ling's anime homepage that was the nexus of English-language Sakura Taisen fandom, and was where the petition was held. That site helped keep Sailor Moon going on English language TV via the Save Our Sailors (S.O.S.) petition, but the Sakura Taisen petition just fell on deaf ears at Sega of America. Not only was Sega of America on bad terms with American game players, but they were also on the bad side of Sega of Japan.

Everyone today says that the Sega Saturn was such a failure, but they fail to realize that it was Sega's most successful game console in Japan (the Genesis, known as the Mega Drive in Japan, didn't do so well as it did in the West). The Saturn was the best console for 2D gaming, from shooters/shmups to Capcom and SNK fighting games...most of which were never released in North America. When I first visited Japan in 1998, the Saturn game selections in many stores were bigger than N64 selections. They had something great, but SoA's priorities were chasing after a demographic that was ignoring them. The Saturn was a 2D otaku powerhouse, but it wasn't until the president Bernie Stolar left that SoA started experimenting a bit. They still wouldn't release Sakura Taisen on the North American DC though.

Nowadays, gamers are used to companies like Aksys, XSeed, NIS, and Atlus (ironically now owned by Sega) releasing very Japanese-y games for the English langauge markets. I don't know if it would have helped boost their overall sales, but there certainly was a clamor for Sakura Taisen and other quirky, Japanese-y games in those days.

[usamimi]

Oh man, YES! I always liked the Genesis/Mega Drive and it killed me that we never got some of the really cool games from Japan in English. Same with the Sega Saturn...so many awesome games were made for it, and we only got a handful of the cool ones. (Or, in the case of the Magic Knight Rayearth game, it was horribly butchered. )

I do remember a lot of people clamoring for the Sakura Wars games...I even remember a time that they finally said they'd release one, but then it kept getting pushed back (I vaguely recall they were considering bringing the 2nd or 3rd game over for a little while) until finally they released the FIFTH one and by that time, not a lot of fans were still interested. Good job, Sega!

Yeah, it's funny how game companies in America used to worry that they couldn't release games that were TOO weird or TOO Japanese because "they wouldn't sell"...then Katamari Damashii happened. Now some companies totally bank on the popularity of weird and Japanese-y games because they realize that people like us actually LIKE THEM. (Shocking!)

[greg]

The Salamander OVA is a fun one to watch. Based off of Konami's Salamander and Gradius shmups, this 3-part anime OVA remains pretty faithful to the original source material of the video games. You can read about it here: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/gradius/gradius7.htm . The character designs are by none other than Haruhiko Mikimoto himself! This was released on VHS and LD in Japan, although I bought a bootleg DVD off eBay several years ago. The subtitles are actually decent.

And speaking of Konami shmups, there are a few Twinbee anime that were made.

[Net-Lex]

given the sort of campy fun of Fatal Fury.

I still have a soft spot in my heart for this one (one of first anime I ever bought).

Mai's victory pose hastened puberty for many.

[greg]

Ha! Yes, and how many guys have you known who were convinced that she says, "Yup, me bouncy!" when she poses in the game? I can't remember what she actually says. Something like "Nippon Ichi" or something.

[Net-Lex]

Ha! Yes, and how many guys have you known who were convinced that she says, "Yup, me bouncy!" when she poses in the game? I can't remember what she actually says. Something like "Nippon Ichi" or something.

Same goes for Chun-li. I always thought she said, "That's that!". Now, in all my broken Japanese speaking glory, I understand her to say, "Yatta!".

[danth]

Ha! Yes, and how many guys have you known who were convinced that she says, "Yup, me bouncy!" when she poses in the game? I can't remember what she actually says. Something like "Nippon Ichi" or something.

Same goes for Chun-li. I always thought she said, "That's that!". Now, in all my broken Japanese speaking glory, I understand her to say, "Yatta!".

I want to know what Charlotte says in Samurai Showdown before she does her super-stabby flurry attack. The best guess my friend and I could come up with was "I'm going to fuck your shit up" but that was more of a joke.