So lately I got into this binge of watching 80s magic girl anime.
It's a sordid tale of insomnia, nostalgia, and dumb curiosity. I made a habit of watching old Urusei Yatsura episodes (my fave anime comedy, btw) to help me fall asleep. I noticed the guy who uploaded them on youtube had uploaded other old 80s anime episodes, so I gave them a try. They turned out to be all magic girl series produced by Studio Pierrot, with a particular quartet (Creamy Mami, Persia, Magical Emi, and Pastel Yumi) considered to be the seminal series of that genre of the era.
I wasn't super into these (with one exception), so I've been using them to help fall asleep as well, and it often takes me several days to end up watching a full episode. But still, they are interesting artifacts of their era, and they do have outstanding and imaginative episodes here and there. And for the target audience, aka prepubescent kids, they'd be a fun watch. So I thought they might be interesting to quickly review for those who might be interested.
They all follow a basic template; a girl around 10 or 12 years old stumbles upon magic creatures of some sort (fairies, kappa, floating magic sky boats,) helps them out, and is in turn granted magic powers for the duration of the series. The usual caveat is that they have to keep their new abilities secret from everyone except their newly-acquired magical guides/companions. These aren't latter-era magic girl shows, either. instead of fighting evil or saving the world with their powers, they mostly use them to fulfill their own wishes as well as help out their friends and families in what is mostly light slice-of-life-with-magic stories. There are, however, occasional full-on magical adventure stories involving pocket dimensions, monsters, ghosts, and other supernatural stuff.
In chronological order, the first is Creamy Mami (these shows do have longer names, like this one is actually called Creamy Mami the Magical Angel or Mahō no Tenshi Kurīmī Mami, but the abbreviated names are good enough for googling them.) Creamy Mami is probably the most-out there and weird one of the lot. Twelve year old Yuu helps out magic aliens driving around an invisible space ark called the Feather Star (no really,) so in return its leader/god of magic, a four-inch-tall pixie, grants her the ability to change back and forth into an adult version of herself. While transformed, she has various vaguely-defined magic powers, and is given two magic kittens as guides and companions.
Yuu in her new body stumbles onto a singing contest in which she uses magic to win, and becomes and instant overnight pop idol called Creamy Mami when it's televised. So she has to live a double life while dealing with both home and school as well as being a media celebrity.
Creamy Mami was mostly good, but not great. Yuu's family and friends as characters were either boring or idiots. Meanwhile, Mami's managers and a rival singer working for them were much more interesting, but were rarely given the development they deserved. This was also the most purely 80s of the shows, which any glance at the costumes and designs will clearly show.
Next up is Persia, The Magic Fairy. Unfortunately, this is the worst of the lot. It has a much more gonzo and comedic tone than the other shows, but the comedy often misses the mark. The concept is really out there, too. Persia is a jungle girl brought up in cringey stereotype Africa (yeah, I know it was 80s Japan, not exactly a beacon of progressive enlightenment, but those scenes are still very awkward to watch), complete with a pet lion and leopard-skin outfit. She moves to Japan, has to adjust to modern life, trips over some Kappas, and ends up having to collect love energy or some such. In return she's able to turn into an adult version of herself with whatever skills she wants when she changes. If she wants to be a driver, for example, her transformed self will be an expert car driver.
Unfortunately, Persia as a show is too unfocused, with characters I never really cared about. I only watched a handful of episodes before I moved on.
Which brings us to Magical Emi, which is by far the very best show talked about here, and the only one I found myself genuinely invested in. Mai is a klutzy girl born into a family of struggling stage magicians. One day she stumbles into a fairy in a magic mirror who, you guessed it, allows her to transform back and forth into a grown up version of herself with magic powers. She uses her magic abilities to salvage her family's magic show, and becomes and overnight sensation with her astounding and spectacular magic 'tricks' no one can figure out. Like Creamy Mami, she often has to balance her 'normal' life as a kid with her secret identity as superstar Magcial Emi. But the real kicker with her character is that she wants to become the world's greatest stage magician, but with only her real skill and not magic powers.
Magical Emi honestly has it all. Great writing, engaging characters, damn good animation, an intriguing set-up, and a three-dimensional main character with both believable flaws and an admirable goal. Even the op is super-catchy and memorable. The series has 39 episodes and a movie, but unfortunately I've only been able to find 22 episodes translated online. I'm currently looking for the rest.
The last of the four is Pastel Yumi. Like Creamy Mami, its good for what it is, but not great. Yumi's family runs a flower shop, and upon going out of her way to save a dandelion, she is rewarded by two 'flower fairies' with a magic wand. Unlike the others, she doesn't transform. Yumi can use the wand to 'draw' anything she wants, which instantly poofs into reality. The conjured object only lasts a short time, however, and she can't draw the same thing more than once. This has some bizarre and potentially disturbing implications, as she can create not only living creatures, but exact duplicates of real people, but the show never really addresses that.
Yumi is mostly about slice-of-life-with-a-side-dish-of-magic stories, and isn't terribly exciting. Some of the side characters are amusing, like Yumi's stuffy flower-hating neighbor, and her 'adventurer' grandpa, but there's rarely anything all that interesting going on. Kind of just a so-so-entry. But it is the show that so far has put me to sleep the fastest. I've only seen about a dozen episodes of it so far.
It should also be mentioned that all four shows do form a loose kind of 'cinematic universe.' As the various series went along, characters from previous shows would show up in the background here and there. On a few episodes of Magical Emi, for example, you can occasionally see Creamy Mami posters and bus ads, and one time there was even a quick back-shot of Mami as Emi was running by. There was also a few team-up specials between the various girls that Studio Pierrot produced in later years, but I've only read of them and haven't seen them yet.
And there you have it. Who knew these old shows had so much to them?
Friday, June 14, 2019
Sunday, April 7, 2019
Animation Round Up April 2019
Just some thoughts on animated stuff I've watched recently, for other cartoon-o-philes like myself who might be interested in what to or what not to watch
FRUITS BASKET 2019
I just finished watching the first episode of this as of this writing. This is a reboot of an early-2000s anime, considered very much a classic fantasy romcom of the medium, and am quite impressed so far. I don't know how it stacks up to the original show, as I only knew it by reputation, but this first episode was funny and interesting and filled with good characters, as well as having some beautiful looking animation and designs.
The story follows a hard-working, semi-homeless highschool girl Toru who gets taken in by a cursed family in a secluded manor house. Their 'dark' secret? They're all possessed by the animal spirits of the eastern Zodiac and, oh yeah, they transform into their animal forms when hugged by the opposite sex. And of course the ones Toru most closely interacts with are all handsome young guys, so I assume various goofy romantic hijinks will ensue in subsequent episodes a la Ranma 1/2. Definitely one I plan to keep watching.
NETFLIX ULTRAMAN
And kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum is Netflix's new Ultraman anime. Unfortunately, while this one looks like it had potential, it's a mess so far. It's based on the old Kaiju-fighting japanese superhero that dates all the way back to the late 60s, and has had a lot of various incarnations since. I do not like the cel-shaded computer animation here--it too often edges into the uncanny valley for the human characters, and the aliens and ultramen look stiff and unnatural when moving. The characters are bland, especially the Main Character who's a generic well-meaning doofus like a thousand other anime protagonists, and the villains are one-note and underdeveloped. But some of the action and fights are good, as are some alien and monster designs. I also have to give them props for trying and mostly succeeding in keep the aesthetic from the old show while updating enough so that it looks somewhat believable for 2019.
Plus in the original, Ultraman grew to 150' tall and fought rubbery kaiju, which when I watched the original as a kid was easily the coolest part of the show. Why is there none of that here? Might as well be watching japanese Iron Man where they replaced Tony Stark with the world's most boring teen-ager.
I believe this show is supposed to get at least three season. Maybe it will improve as it goes on, but for right now I'd say skip it.
LOVE, DEATH, & ROBOTS
This new animated anthology series on Netflix actually grew out of the creators' long-standing efforts to revive the Heavy Metal movies. But I guess there were various rights issues, so they ended up saying screw it and just created their own thing. There are 18 shorts in the series, many very reminiscent of Twilight Zone stories, and they vary wildly in quality and cleverness. Some were dumb and pointless (the god-awful 'Witness,' the werewolf soldier one, and the one non-animated one with the fridge.) But some are definitely worth a watch. The best, imho: Three Robots, The Secret War, Suits, Good Hunting, Zima Blue, and Lucky 13.
GATE
I'm late to the party on this one, as it first came out in 2015. but I just started watching this last week, and am a few episodes into season 2. It's about an interdimensional gate opening up in downtown Tokyo that leads to an honest-to-goodness D&D-esque fantasy world. A fantasy world army tries to invade and is beaten back, prompting Japan to send its own military through the Gate. From then on its modern soldiers vs medieval armies, dragons, wizards, and so on.
A neat premise with some equally neat and engaging characters, and so far it's been pretty fun. They concentrate mostly on a small cadre of soldiers and the various allies and struggles they have rather than on any of the big-picture stuff, which I think was the smart move. I do have some quibbles so far. I dislike that it's so Japanese Flag-Wavy (but then, being an American, I guess I shouldn't complain, given how dumbly over-patriotic some of our movies can get), that too many of the natives are depicted as dumb cannonfoddder, and that the modern military tech is too OP vs the fantasy armies (ie, it's boring if the good guys don't have real challenges). But so far it's been fun when it focuses on teh main characters, so I'll definitely keep watching.
MAGICAL ANGEL CREAMY MAMI
This may sound like a porno title, but it's actually one of the original magical girl anime series from the early 80s. I was re-watching some Urusei Yatsura (perhaps THE all-time classic anime romcom) on youtube when I noticed the user had also uploaded some episodes of this old series, so I started watching some. Basically a twelve-year old girl named Yuu helps out some magic aliens, and as a reward they give her a magic wand that can transform her back and forth into an adult version of herself. Through coincidence and vaguely-defined magic powers in her new form, she becomes an overnight pop idol singer called Creamy Mami. Most of the episodes I've seen so far are Yuu trying to lead her double life and keeping it all secret from everyone except her two mouthy magic kittens.
So yeah, this is basically a young-girl wish-fulfillment version of Shazam, only instead of becoming a superhero, she becomes a popstar, though she still uses her powers to occasionally help people out and combat various supernatural menaces like ghosts. This also has to be one of the most 80s shows I've ever seen. Just google some images from the show and you'll see instantly what I mean.
It's mostly okay. Not great, but not awful either, and is definitely more sophisticated than any American TV cartoon that was produced in the same era. It's hokey and goofy at times, but occasionally they do squeeze some interesting stories and character moments out of the premise, so it's just fun and entertaining enough to make me watch more, though at a pace of only one episode or two a week..
So that's about it for now. More to come sometime soon!
FRUITS BASKET 2019
I just finished watching the first episode of this as of this writing. This is a reboot of an early-2000s anime, considered very much a classic fantasy romcom of the medium, and am quite impressed so far. I don't know how it stacks up to the original show, as I only knew it by reputation, but this first episode was funny and interesting and filled with good characters, as well as having some beautiful looking animation and designs.
The story follows a hard-working, semi-homeless highschool girl Toru who gets taken in by a cursed family in a secluded manor house. Their 'dark' secret? They're all possessed by the animal spirits of the eastern Zodiac and, oh yeah, they transform into their animal forms when hugged by the opposite sex. And of course the ones Toru most closely interacts with are all handsome young guys, so I assume various goofy romantic hijinks will ensue in subsequent episodes a la Ranma 1/2. Definitely one I plan to keep watching.
NETFLIX ULTRAMAN
And kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum is Netflix's new Ultraman anime. Unfortunately, while this one looks like it had potential, it's a mess so far. It's based on the old Kaiju-fighting japanese superhero that dates all the way back to the late 60s, and has had a lot of various incarnations since. I do not like the cel-shaded computer animation here--it too often edges into the uncanny valley for the human characters, and the aliens and ultramen look stiff and unnatural when moving. The characters are bland, especially the Main Character who's a generic well-meaning doofus like a thousand other anime protagonists, and the villains are one-note and underdeveloped. But some of the action and fights are good, as are some alien and monster designs. I also have to give them props for trying and mostly succeeding in keep the aesthetic from the old show while updating enough so that it looks somewhat believable for 2019.
Plus in the original, Ultraman grew to 150' tall and fought rubbery kaiju, which when I watched the original as a kid was easily the coolest part of the show. Why is there none of that here? Might as well be watching japanese Iron Man where they replaced Tony Stark with the world's most boring teen-ager.
I believe this show is supposed to get at least three season. Maybe it will improve as it goes on, but for right now I'd say skip it.
LOVE, DEATH, & ROBOTS
This new animated anthology series on Netflix actually grew out of the creators' long-standing efforts to revive the Heavy Metal movies. But I guess there were various rights issues, so they ended up saying screw it and just created their own thing. There are 18 shorts in the series, many very reminiscent of Twilight Zone stories, and they vary wildly in quality and cleverness. Some were dumb and pointless (the god-awful 'Witness,' the werewolf soldier one, and the one non-animated one with the fridge.) But some are definitely worth a watch. The best, imho: Three Robots, The Secret War, Suits, Good Hunting, Zima Blue, and Lucky 13.
GATE
I'm late to the party on this one, as it first came out in 2015. but I just started watching this last week, and am a few episodes into season 2. It's about an interdimensional gate opening up in downtown Tokyo that leads to an honest-to-goodness D&D-esque fantasy world. A fantasy world army tries to invade and is beaten back, prompting Japan to send its own military through the Gate. From then on its modern soldiers vs medieval armies, dragons, wizards, and so on.
A neat premise with some equally neat and engaging characters, and so far it's been pretty fun. They concentrate mostly on a small cadre of soldiers and the various allies and struggles they have rather than on any of the big-picture stuff, which I think was the smart move. I do have some quibbles so far. I dislike that it's so Japanese Flag-Wavy (but then, being an American, I guess I shouldn't complain, given how dumbly over-patriotic some of our movies can get), that too many of the natives are depicted as dumb cannonfoddder, and that the modern military tech is too OP vs the fantasy armies (ie, it's boring if the good guys don't have real challenges). But so far it's been fun when it focuses on teh main characters, so I'll definitely keep watching.
MAGICAL ANGEL CREAMY MAMI
This may sound like a porno title, but it's actually one of the original magical girl anime series from the early 80s. I was re-watching some Urusei Yatsura (perhaps THE all-time classic anime romcom) on youtube when I noticed the user had also uploaded some episodes of this old series, so I started watching some. Basically a twelve-year old girl named Yuu helps out some magic aliens, and as a reward they give her a magic wand that can transform her back and forth into an adult version of herself. Through coincidence and vaguely-defined magic powers in her new form, she becomes an overnight pop idol singer called Creamy Mami. Most of the episodes I've seen so far are Yuu trying to lead her double life and keeping it all secret from everyone except her two mouthy magic kittens.
So yeah, this is basically a young-girl wish-fulfillment version of Shazam, only instead of becoming a superhero, she becomes a popstar, though she still uses her powers to occasionally help people out and combat various supernatural menaces like ghosts. This also has to be one of the most 80s shows I've ever seen. Just google some images from the show and you'll see instantly what I mean.
It's mostly okay. Not great, but not awful either, and is definitely more sophisticated than any American TV cartoon that was produced in the same era. It's hokey and goofy at times, but occasionally they do squeeze some interesting stories and character moments out of the premise, so it's just fun and entertaining enough to make me watch more, though at a pace of only one episode or two a week..
So that's about it for now. More to come sometime soon!
Sunday, February 3, 2019
More Animations News!
They just had the ANNIE AWARDS, the animation industry's big honors. I'm very happy that SPIDERMAN: INTO THE SPIDERVERSE swept the movie awards and that HILDA won big in the TV department. It's nice to see quality productions that actually deserve all the recognition they can get get exactly that!
Other big news is that Disney announced two ZOOTOPIA theatrical sequels. It's unusual for an animated feature to have two follow-ups announced simultaneously like that. But then I guess Zootopia was a surprise monster hit and did break a billion dollars, so I guess Disney is confident they'll get a good return on their investment.
I wonder if they're going to do the interracial couple allegory thing with Judy and Nick, which I'm sure would have all the shipper fans the world over squealing with delight.. It seems like a natural place to go with it, but we'll see.
Right now I'm looking forward to the second season of THE DRAGON PRINCE dropping on the 15th. The first season was great stuff and I thought at the time that it was a shoe-in for best TV animation of last year, until HILDA and SHE-RA showed up. Here's hoping the second season is as good as the first!
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
The Best Animation I Saw In 2018
It's been a while since I posted anything, since I'm concentrating on getting writing projects caught up. But I thought I should at least put something online to remind people that I am still alive. So, touching on one of my passions, here's a list of the best animated stuff I saw in 2018 in no particular order. These may not all be things that premiered in 2018, but that's when I saw them. Plus, I have't seen everything animated that came out this year (yet), like Isle of Dogs and Into the Spider-Verse, so they won't be included here.
SONG OF THE SEA This originally came out in 2014, but I only saw it this year. One of the top three truly classic animated works of the 2010s, along with contenders like the amazing COCO and WOLF CHILDREN. By the same creator and crew who made THE SECRET OF KELLS, it draws heavily on Irish Folklore and Myth to tell the tale of two contentious Irish siblings. If there is only one entry on this list that you see, it definitely has to be this one.
HILDA A cozy but super-imaginative and fun adventure series that took me completely by surprise. A brash young girl moves from the countryside to the city in a fantasy world, and finds the city offers just as much magical adventure as her former home. The best tv/streaming animated work this year.
SHE-RA Speaking of surprises, this turned out to be another very pleasant one, better in every way than the original by far. Especially solid here are all the prominent characters, the true stand-outs being protagonist Adora and her best-friend-turned-enemy Catra. They didn't shy away from the emotional turmoil caused by the fallout of Adora's decision, and even in the midst of the fighting the two girls' conflicted feelings were still very apparent and made for some compelling viewing. And screw the comicsgater haters who whined about this before seeing even a lick of footage because She-Ra didn't look like an 80s barbie doll.
CASTLEVANIA No one expects video game adaptations to be good, but this one managed to pull it off. Great characters and great plot, with one heck of a climatic battle.
THE DRAGON PRINCE From one of the writers who brought us Avatar: The Last Airbender is a great and very fun fantasy adventure set in an interesting new world. Some criticisms of its stiff animation are valid, but the solid writing, creativity, and great characters more than make up for it.
YURU CAMP Cozy, relaxing, and very funny in places, I did not expect a slice-of-life series about a group of high school girls going cold-weather camping to be as watchable as it was. It's very much like SWEETNESS AND LIGHTNING that it's one of those perfect things to watch when you want to unwind after a hard day.
STAR WARS REBELS The series wrapped up with a crackerjack collection of final episodes. The very best thing Star Wars on screen since the original trilogy.
AGGRETSUKO Funny and true-to-life office comedy that just happens to star a death-metal-loving red panda.
MY HERO ACADEMIA In its third season, still a great, solid action anime about student super heroes. Had my favorite single episode of the year, with All Might in his epic final battle against All For One. United States of Smash!
And that's it I guess. I may have missed one or two. Here's hoping 2019 produces some equally great or even better animation!
SONG OF THE SEA This originally came out in 2014, but I only saw it this year. One of the top three truly classic animated works of the 2010s, along with contenders like the amazing COCO and WOLF CHILDREN. By the same creator and crew who made THE SECRET OF KELLS, it draws heavily on Irish Folklore and Myth to tell the tale of two contentious Irish siblings. If there is only one entry on this list that you see, it definitely has to be this one.
HILDA A cozy but super-imaginative and fun adventure series that took me completely by surprise. A brash young girl moves from the countryside to the city in a fantasy world, and finds the city offers just as much magical adventure as her former home. The best tv/streaming animated work this year.
SHE-RA Speaking of surprises, this turned out to be another very pleasant one, better in every way than the original by far. Especially solid here are all the prominent characters, the true stand-outs being protagonist Adora and her best-friend-turned-enemy Catra. They didn't shy away from the emotional turmoil caused by the fallout of Adora's decision, and even in the midst of the fighting the two girls' conflicted feelings were still very apparent and made for some compelling viewing. And screw the comicsgater haters who whined about this before seeing even a lick of footage because She-Ra didn't look like an 80s barbie doll.
CASTLEVANIA No one expects video game adaptations to be good, but this one managed to pull it off. Great characters and great plot, with one heck of a climatic battle.
THE DRAGON PRINCE From one of the writers who brought us Avatar: The Last Airbender is a great and very fun fantasy adventure set in an interesting new world. Some criticisms of its stiff animation are valid, but the solid writing, creativity, and great characters more than make up for it.
YURU CAMP Cozy, relaxing, and very funny in places, I did not expect a slice-of-life series about a group of high school girls going cold-weather camping to be as watchable as it was. It's very much like SWEETNESS AND LIGHTNING that it's one of those perfect things to watch when you want to unwind after a hard day.
STAR WARS REBELS The series wrapped up with a crackerjack collection of final episodes. The very best thing Star Wars on screen since the original trilogy.
AGGRETSUKO Funny and true-to-life office comedy that just happens to star a death-metal-loving red panda.
MY HERO ACADEMIA In its third season, still a great, solid action anime about student super heroes. Had my favorite single episode of the year, with All Might in his epic final battle against All For One. United States of Smash!
And that's it I guess. I may have missed one or two. Here's hoping 2019 produces some equally great or even better animation!
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