Hi I'm Dranzerstorm
You may remember me as a regular contestant on the caption battle contest.
Welcome to Retro Retrospective, my world dedicated to the old guard of the Otaku world; expect some reviews of the old & obscure, and in-depth geeky knowledge with the occasional top ten and I now have a logo.
Little info about me
Well I'm British and I'm in to all things animated and nostalgia.
I've grown up with every cartoon going and have watched hundreds of anime.
Oh and to answer a question I was asked once, no I don't wear glasses in real life, I would wear Loke's sunglasses though.
I'm revisiting this list for a couple of extra entries as two recent ones showed a couple of fun Cinderellas.
This list will only show animations that have used the Cinderella story to some degree in universe, all entries must have the three crucial scenes of the Godmother, the Ball and the Glass Slipper.
So without further delay lets begin.
12. Alvin and the Chipmunks
This version is obviously told through the Chipettes as Brittany refuses to do chores and not surprising doesn't get to go anywhere, so cue the Cinderella dream sequence with all the bells and whistles you can expect from the story. Simon's role as Fairy Godmunk is particularly hilarious to watch.
11. Hamtaro
Lead human Laura gets picked for the title role but the slipper goes missing during the play so it's up to the Ham-Hams to get it back to her. Like I said in my review of Hamtaro last year, it's the ultimate in super safe anime.
10. Betty Boop
Cartoon's first femme fatale is the oldest entry on this list with all the classic sing song and slapstick of cartoons of that era, she also has red hair which is quite unique as her hair is normally black.
9. Science Fell In Love So I Tried To Prove It
The Science type Cinderella is hilariously off the wall as our two leads try and make sense of the story through Scientific eyes yet still playing the roles themselves.
8. Keroro Gunso
One of only two genderswap entries in this list. Giroro wants to declare his love for Natsumi at the ball she's going to, so using a device borrowed from Kululu, he makes himself human and dances with her, you know it's only a short but you can't help but hope for a happy ending.
7. Pink Panther
The Pink Panther cartoon has always been an interesting one as each short is done with just music and sound effects and no dialogue. In this version the Pink Panther finds a witch's wand and helps out a girl in need of some luck and love which the Panther is more than happy to help with, what makes this more interesting is the fight he has with the witch.
6. Strawberry Shortcake
The only Cinderella story I know to feature stepsisters who apologize mid insult. It's even better in the German Dub.
5. Family Guy
One of the rare moments where Meg Griffin is allowed to get her own back a bit, it's surprisingly well done for a relatively new episode as it's in the same season as that other episode that killed Brian off.
4. New Fruits Basket
The miscasting of all the roles with Tohru being a step sister, Kyo being the Prince, Yuki being the Godmother...okay not all miscast and finally Goth Girl Saki as Cinderella who only went to the ball for Yakiniku. My niece expected food at the ball as well, I'm glad there's a Cinderella who agrees.
3. Cardcaptor Sakura
The other genderswap version and boy is it hilarious as Toya pulls off the manliest looking Cinderella ever. Brooding males seem to work as princesses, who knew?
2. Smile Precure
The Precures go into the Cinderella world to try and save it by making sure the story finishes on a happy ending. Cure Happy is obviously Cinderella, but we got Cure Beauty as the Prince (Yuri Writers smile in delight), Cure Peace as the Godmother and Cure March & Sunny as the horses, yeah you heard me, horses.
1. Sakura Wars
But the best ones at doing Cinderella are the Imperial Floral Assault Team, as the lead goes to Sakura Shinguji as part of her character development but that's not the end of it. In a spinoff Columns puzzle game, all the girls have a go at becoming Cinderella with some surprising results particularly how well Kanna cleans up in a dress despite the fact that she almost always passes for a man, it must be the Monkey D Luffy voice.
I'm reviewing these two together for convenience as it takes place in the same timeline.
Sakura Wars is a steampunk RPG dating simulator made by Sega, the OVA here acts to fill in the gaps for the game's prologue and gaps within the game to give characters a chance to shine outside of combat.
Ova 1 is the prequel which showcases the development of the mechs, the discovery that only certain people can use them, the build up to Ohgami and Sakura's recruitment, the team's first mission and a one off just to prove that Ohgami is the ideal commander. OVA 2 pairs two of the girls together per episode with the last two focussing on Sakura going to help a wedding ceremony for a family member with the rest thinking she's getting married but it showcases a real dilemma when it hits the girls that if one of them did marry they may decide to retire, of course Sakura doesn't marry and it's all one big misunderstanding.
Mixed bag here, the 1st OVA may as well have been game DLC, which would've helped clean up the narrative alot so lets focus on the character driven episodes of OVA 2.
Sakura and Maria: Maria's past catches up to her as a mafia hitman comes after her but working with Sakura she manages to overcome it, even perfecting the trick she failed at the start, both work well together and gives both a healthy boost in character strength.
Iris and Reni: Iris has a sulk after an argument about her being too young to lead a play, leading her into the city causing trouble only for Reni to bail her out, they don't gain much from the experience and feel weaker because of it.
Sumire and Kanna: The team encounter a film set haunted by a former silent film actress driven to suicide when the introduction of sound drove her out the industry, this is my favourite episode as it shows a softer, stronger side to the normally stuck up Sumire, while Kanna doesn't do much, I still enjoy an early rendition of what would later become the voice of Monkey D Luffy.
Orihime and Kohran: The team help out a village overrun with Yakuza by using one of their plays of a comicbook hero as inspiration to drive out the bad guys, nothing really achieved here either as their characters are pretty much the same as normal.
Episode 5 and 6 is a giant misunderstanding but the use of silence and music really captures the mood set at the beginning of episode 6, this is sadder in context when you realize it also reflects the actresses who play the girls as it was only a few years later that saw Sumire get an Ova just to showcase her actress' retirement, what makes Sakura Wars unique among other franchises is the stage shows as OVA 2 in particular has plays that are done in the stage shows and all the main actresses play their characters, so when it came to end it hit everyone pretty hard.
Dub is a mixed bag as some voices were recast between OVAs but not too bad.
Final Verdict: They definitely hit the right tone and notes throughout the OVAs and while some characters don't improve, others do but it's frustrating to watch this and not be able to play the games due to the Japanese only stamp.
I've recovered enough to start reviewing again despite coughing up lungs as I'm typing, so I've got prepared the first of many reviews of the Sakura Wars Franchise, first up it's the 3rd OVA Ecole De Paris
Before we begin I must note that every OVA in this franchise is part of the canon of the video game series and each episode shows a particular part of the story not seen in the games and therefore each episode doesn't directly link to the last one.
We start off learning about how lead female Erica Fontaine joins the Paris Floral Assault Unit and her meeting with Glycine Bleumer. (Yes she's named after a chemical used in food additives, cosmetics and a finishing agent for metal)
We learn a lot about the clueless Erica in one episode including her trademark stage performance, her narcolepsy, her love of cake, the tendency to pray to angels spinning around her own head and getting arrested for accidentally running into Lobelia Carlini. (More on her later) Her ditzyness doesn't last long when a demon comes along and Erica & Glycine fight it, Erica proves to be remarkably capable in combat, more so than the original Floral Assault Unit on their first attempt.
We move on to Episode 2 and Ichiro Ohgami has magically arrived along with child character Coquelicot, but the episode focuses on how Lobelia Carlini joins the team. At the start we find out that she's a notorious criminal with demon like powers who every so often plays the Virgin Mary to depressed men. (It makes more sense in context)
Catching Lobelia however is a different matter, so the commander of the unit decides to trap Lobelia in a town and destroy it around her to make it hard to escape while using chess as a visual aid to display the tactics. Even that wasn't enough so the vice commander takes her down with a sniper rifle containing a paralyzing bullet. At this moment we come to my favorite quote.
"Actually my aim was off, I was trying to kill her, after all I do value my own life"
That was the vice commander's words when it was mistakenly believed that he missed on purpose. That is a lesson to all characters who mistakenly let villains live and wonder why they get their arses kicked afterwards.
The final episode features an epic battle against a rogue test armor possessed by the enemy, also Ohgami is trying to write a letter to his commander about how things are going, (Hanabi also magically joins the group) we get a bigger insight into the character's motives and personalities and it's nice to see a selfish character among the group who's only doing it to free herself from a lengthy prison sentence.
Erica & Ohgami battle the rogue armor while the others do their powers combined act to help them; I must mention the dub at this point, compared to the other dubs within the franchise this is probably the best one but doesn't lend itself well to the fight scene in the episode.
We end the OVA with an image of a giant revolver underneath the Arc De Triomphe, (let that sink in for a second) remember this and the name "Douglas Stewart" on the rogue armor for another time. (If mentioned in comments please use spoiler blanks)
This is nice OVA series but like the others it already expects you to have played the game beforehand and with no localization it becomes extremely hard to understand. Plus it's missing this scene.
No one is that perky in the morning but considering she sleeps for roughly 15 hours a day it's any wonder she's always perky.
Final Verdict: It's worth a watch but can lead to the expensive hobby of game importing, and while Japanese Dreamcasts & PS2s are surprisingly common the prices aren't.
