The Old School Otaku Lounge

My daughter wanted to watch the same episode again this morning. I think any anime with prolonged scenes of nekkidness is gonna capture her attention anyway (she gets a kick out of Ranma 1/2 as a result), but she is also blown away at the idea of Yatterman being the villains in the show. I've no idea if those are cyborgs or not. Maybe this weekend I will look for the other episodes. I can try VPN'ing into Hulu to catch the first subtitled episode for free, assuming I don't have to sign up for the service I won't really use much.

greg wrote:My daughter wanted to watch the same episode again this morning. I think any anime with prolonged scenes of nekkidness is gonna capture her attention anyway (she gets a kick out of Ranma 1/2 as a result), but she is also blown away at the idea of Yatterman being the villains in the show. I've no idea if those are cyborgs or not. Maybe this weekend I will look for the other episodes. I can try VPN'ing into Hulu to catch the first subtitled episode for free, assuming I don't have to sign up for the service I won't really use much.

Yeah, the eps on Hulu are free, if you're able to VPN into Hulu you should be able to watch what they have just fine.

I'm not sure how to feel about this show yet. I guess I hesitate over the whole "the good guys are really the bad guys" conceit. Given how bouncy the original Yatterman was, this kinda feels like a slap in the face to the O.G. of Tatsunoko, dig?

And yeah, I felt the same way over Casshern Sins.

I still feel kind of annoyed at Gatchaman Crowds. There was no point to even call it 'Gatchaman' when you boil it all down.

But I do have to say, there's *something* about Yatterman Night that feels like the direction it's starting at isn't how it's going to end up. And it is at least connecting to it's originator show.

It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Tatsunoko's early '90s Retro-Remake wave started out super strong with Tekkaman Blade then kind of went downhill (Cassharn-4 eps. OVA, Gatchaman-3 eps. OVA, Polimar-2 eps. OVA). Casshern Sins didn't seem to really explode, Gatchaman Crowds did get some buzz, Yatterman Night may have hit the 'sweet spot', I can't help but wonder what they might do with another Tekkaman revamp.

Oh hey good news, Greg! Tatsunoko's Japanese Youtube channel is releasing full episodes of Yatterman Night there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1 ... r_embedded They're not gonna be HD and no English subs, but I'm assuming that won't be a problem for you!

Steve - I think what they're going for is that obviously, original Yatterman/Time Bokan is for kids: like you said, it's bouncy, goofy, ect. I think with this, they're trying to make something for the adults that grew up liking it that's not as goofy, but still has some heart. At least, that's the impression I've gotten so far, who knows where this story will lead. I don't think it's meant to replace original Yatterman/Time Bokan, or to be a "slap in the face". I can totally understand it not being someone's cup of tea, tho--like I said, my original knee-jerk reaction was "oh, man, this looks like it could be another mess." But I'm keeping an open mind after seeing the first episode.

Well, subs help, but I can watch it for gist, at least. Thanks for the link!

I find the twist of Yatterman becoming some totalitarian organization in the distant future to be cynical and amusing. Gan-chan and and Ai-chan must be rolling in their graves. I can't wait to see the new Doronbo gang building goofy mecha. Something that resembled Yatter-Pelican in the 3rd episode is seen, so I really hope the show will wander into the goofy zone soon. Or, they can just wizz it down their pant leg. We'll wait and see.

By the way, are those Yatterman fellows cyborgs or robots or something?

I'm not sure, I'm assuming they are? They looked like they could be.

Part of me is expecting there to be some sort of Twist ending where it's not Yatterman at all but someone or something pretending to be, or something like that. I'm sure eventually there'll be some sort of ~reveal~ at least.

I've watched the first two episodes of this; I'm enjoying it so far. Like usamimi, I was introduced to this franchise via the "Time Fighters" adaptation of Time Bokan. Although I've been aware of the franchise, it's not something that I've followed very closely.

With that said, it seems like they are doing a good job of catering to the nostalgia crowd while still crafting a new and interesting story within the continuity. I'm definitely interested in seeing more!

usamimi wrote:Part of me is expecting there to be some sort of Twist ending where it's not Yatterman at all but someone or something pretending to be, or something like that. I'm sure eventually there'll be some sort of ~reveal~ at least.

I really think you're right about this usamimi. I'm interested to see if Yatterman shows up at some point (Or maybe a descendant? Not sure if Yatterman is still around). It would be kind of cool to see Yatterman team up with the Doronbow Gang!

SteveH wrote:
It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Tatsunoko's early '90s Retro-Remake wave started out super strong with Tekkaman Blade then kind of went downhill (Cassharn-4 eps. OVA, Gatchaman-3 eps. OVA, Polimar-2 eps. OVA). Casshern Sins didn't seem to really explode, Gatchaman Crowds did get some buzz, Yatterman Night may have hit the 'sweet spot', I can't help but wonder what they might do with another Tekkaman revamp.

I'll put down here that I thought Casshern Sins was, if looked at in isolation, one of the very few truly avant-garde TV anime of the past 10 years. It was really arty and alien and out there. In a way you couldn't even be offended by how different it was to the original because it didn't even pander to any modern fanbase in particular, except maybe European Arthouse film fans who just happen to like anime, which is about as obscure a demographic as you could aim for.

It's obvious there are many animators today who just want to do their own thing, but since getting original properties and ideas greenlit is so difficult in today's industry, they basically have to take known properties and then do their own things with it. Gatchaman Crowds would be a perfectly okay show if you didn't think "Gatchaman" and instead thought of it as a completely new anime about superheroes.

llj wrote:

SteveH wrote:
It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Tatsunoko's early '90s Retro-Remake wave started out super strong with Tekkaman Blade then kind of went downhill (Cassharn-4 eps. OVA, Gatchaman-3 eps. OVA, Polimar-2 eps. OVA). Casshern Sins didn't seem to really explode, Gatchaman Crowds did get some buzz, Yatterman Night may have hit the 'sweet spot', I can't help but wonder what they might do with another Tekkaman revamp.

I'll put down here that I thought Casshern Sins was, if looked at in isolation, one of the very few truly avant-garde TV anime of the past 10 years. It was really arty and alien and out there. In a way you couldn't even be offended by how different it was to the original because it didn't even pander to any modern fanbase in particular, except maybe European Arthouse film fans who just happen to like anime, which is about as obscure a demographic as you could aim for.

It's obvious there are many animators today who just want to do their own thing, but since getting original properties and ideas greenlit is so difficult in today's industry, they basically have to take known properties and then do their own things with it. Gatchaman Crowds would be a perfectly okay show if you didn't think "Gatchaman" and instead thought of it as a completely new anime about superheroes.

I didn't see much of Casshern Sins, but what little I did see I thought was kinda interesting and directed well. And yeah, like I've said before...Crowds had things about it I liked, but they tried to make something ambitious within the constraints of a Gatchaman title and it just ended up kind of being a mess--if it had been a non-Gatchaman title with more creative freedom, I probably would've liked it a lot more.

Yatterman Night seems to be trying to find a good middle ground, and I really appreciate that. It's different, but not ~TOO OUT THERE~ that it takes people completely out of the Tatsunoko Universe mindset. (At least, so far!)

We watched episode four this morning. Seeing the robot open its mouth and all those mini robots marching out assured me that this show is not going to be too big of a departure from the original.