Welcome to the Fantasy Zone
This Zone is dedicated to the lesser known elements of anime hosted by the cast of Victory Script.
What weapon is the best?
Who will win in this Death Battle?
Is this costume practical?
You name it, it's all covered here in the Fantasy Zone!
It's very easy to blame 4Kids for some of the worst dubbing ever but it didn't kill an entire genre like Card Captor Sakura's did, this Otaku Insight will explain the reasons why.
1. Nelvana had the dub and localisation rights.
A common mistake to make with Card Captor Sakura is where the dubbing came from, well it was Canadian dubbed same as Sailor Moon but was also Canadian localized, Nelvana only has two other anime on it's books, Medabots and Beyblade, both were easier to market than Card Captor Sakura because they were both toys first.
2. They tried to market it more to boys.
Anime as a whole was very much a boys thing thanks to Dragonballz with Sailor Moon being the most obvious for girls anime around at the time, with Sakura being joined by Syaoran they tried to market him more as the lead which only made it more confusing in the localisation's narrative.
3. Nelvana had no idea what to do with the LGBT content.
More confusing changes included making Ruby Moon female and struggling to properly translate the more obvious gay moments especially the sexual tension between Touya and Yukito, as well as Tomoyo's massive crush on Sakura.
4. The show was spoiled by trailers.
Yue, a spoiler character was shown in the trailer which I immediately figured out was Yukito, spoiled the plot for me.
5. It caused the failure of the Magical Girl genre in the West.
When it failed to find an audience, it took the genre with it, Tokyo Mew Mew managed to finish but Pretty Cure and Mermaid Melody had two cancelled dubs now lost media, it also contributed to the failure of Escaflowne but that's another story, it would be nearly two decades before another attempt was made with the ill fated Glitter Force but by then the old localisation methods weren't really acceptable anymore, unless you're deconstructing the genre or Sailor Moon don't expect magical girl shows to ever come back.
6. Ironically it would succeed now.
Disney kick started the female lead trend with Kim Possible and two decades later, the majority of cartoons are female led with more open themes of LGBT that Card Captor Sakura had all along, this makes the anime ahead of it's time.
7. Card Captor Sakura is still special regardless.
Despite the poor localisation it's still beloved by myself and alot of 30+ otaku, watching it felt like taking the next step in the fandom especially in the original Japanese.
That's a brief look at Card Captor Sakura's botched dub release, I've got loads more stories from that era but I'll let you choose.
"Escaflowne's messed up history"
Or
"How Gundam got it's groove back and lost it again"
Or
"The Enigma of Hamtaro's Success"
Or
"The Curious Case of Shinzo"
Or
"I thought I dreamt Strange Dawn"
Or
"Did anyone watch Flint the Time Detective?"
Or
"Did Yokai Watch really happen?"
As a bonus I'll be adding my own hot take.
"Fanservice is there to hide the fact that writers can't make stories or characters that are fun or entertaining enough without showing lewd content"
If an anime is only showing lewd content, then that's a valid statement, but I can't exactly work with an anime that does have a good story but terrible characters, designs have to at least be appealing, whether it takes the form of lewds or not.
"Louie the Rune Soldier was funnier than Slayers"
The humour between the two are vastly different, Rune Soldier is funnier but the jokes out stay their welcome, Slayers is more light hearted but the jokes land more often.
"Bunny Girl Senpai is the worst anime ever. Forced story, bad science-fiction and hateable characters"
Just admit that you signed up to the series just to see bunny girls and feel cheated when this is the only time you see one.
Real talk, the story is convoluted and seems to make it up as it goes along as by nature the phenomenon the characters go through is so complex that the anime itself struggles, it's not a sci-fi, thriller and mystery drama would be more appropriate, I didn't mind the characters but I can easily see them as not being appealing, no where near worst anime though.
"Dot Hack Sign is better than Sword Art Online"
I disagree, Sword Art Online is what we wanted to see out of Dot Hack Sign but they instead made a concept like being stuck in a video game utterly boring, it does have a better soundtrack though.
"Spike and Faye would not make a good couple"
Spike barely works with Julia, he'd do even worse with Faye, you could remove both Julia and Faye from the anime and it wouldn't change the narrative, in some cases it would improve it.
"Symphogear is the dumbest anime, I've ever seen, even after two attempts to watch it"
Someone called me out on this hot take on YouTube yesterday but they've yet to tell me why I'm wrong. I don't hate Symphogear, it's just the concept of making a magical girl anime with an idol theme where girls fight with over the top weaponry wearing half a Gundam all the while singing to increase their power reeks of throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, it's dumb but it's really entertaining at the same time, I don't need to know the intricacies of why they fight these beings called the Noize or the main character's struggle with the fact that she inherited her powers, no I just want to see awesome high powered battles set to a cheesy J-Pop soundtrack, it doesn't need any more thought than that, I'm allowed to watch an anime for entertainment purposes, I don't always need to wear review goggles.
The three-episode rule is intended to gauge whether a specific anime series will be to a viewer's liking within the span of three episodes, I mentioned previously that I've been known to drop series after less time and these days, the first episode has to grab you otherwise the internet will soon let you know if the series is bad or not by word of mouth, but how effective is it next to much longer form series?
I picked ten anime known to be longer than 50 episodes and popular enough to have an audience and applied the 3 episode formula to each one, I will not be including Dragonballz as it's a sequel series and well over half it's world viewers were already aware of this fact.
So let's begin.
Inuyasha
In three episodes, the basic plot is established but there's enough going on to warrant a closer look, not so much from Kagome but certainly from Inuyasha considering what he already displayed in a short time.
Passed.
Digimon
In three episodes, the Digi-destined are summoned, they meet their partners and we meet Greymon and Garurumon, you already want to see how everyone else turns out and the enemies are creative enough to keep your attention.
Passed.
Sailor Moon
In three episodes, Usagi gets her powers and it's already looking formulaic and Usagi has shown her entire hand by the third episode, luckily it's saved by the Luna pen giving an extra layer of intrigue in how far Usagi's powers will go.
Passed.
Pokemon
In three episodes, Ash has an eventful opening getting just to Viridian City meeting Misty and Team Rocket along the way, on the actual third episode he catches two Pokemon and evolves one, Ash has achieved enough to see how far he can go on his journey.
Passed.
Fairy Tail
In three episodes, we've met Lucy, Natsu, Happy and enough of the Guild to see how crazy it can get.
Passed.
Yu-Gi-Oh
In three episodes, Yugi has battled two major players and is on his way to a tournament to meet more crazy duelists, being honest I was already sold on episode one.
Passed.
Card Captor Sakura
In three episodes, Sakura has setup the quest, got her friend to join her and dress her up and Sakura has acquired some pretty good cards, the battle costumes alone made you stay.
Passed.
Bleach
In three episodes, Ichigo has his powers and is already taking down his first major hollow in Orihime's brother, the increased violence would've been enough to begin with.
Passed.
One Piece
In three episodes, Luffy has taken out two villains and Zoro has joined his crew, we even have Zoro's back story and Nami in the background doing her own thing and being pleased that Koby won't be joining them, there's enough there to see where it goes.
Passed.
Naruto
In three episodes, Naruto graduates to the Ninja Academy by defeating a villain, he then babysits Konohamaru for episode two and then team 7 is formed with Sasuke and Sakura, the problem here is that it makes the series look like a school anime and there's so little ninja content, you're lucky to stay invested after episode 2 let alone episode 3.
Failed.
Conclusion
I'm fascinated at how well all these series held up in regards to the three episode rule with only Naruto failing, so there is some merit in what you can learn in only 70ish minutes of content as to whether these shows will be for you.
Most fans of Naruto didn't really get into the series until either halfway through the Zabusa arc or when the Chuunin Exam was at it's best, I'll go as far as saying Naruto is the poorest starting anime of all time and it's popularity was by luck that enough people watched it to give it a chance, if aired today, it would fail after one season.
If you do have any hot takes, I'll be happy to take a look at them.
"The idea of putting such a level of detail on the eyes of the characters is the only very real reason why anime is so good at being anime"
It's true that the eyes are a major part of it but that's also true with all animation and it's not a unique trait that anime has, expressions and body language also goes a long way in establishing a good first impression.
"Doraemon, Sazae-San and Shin Chan will always be a part of our lives even when we turn 100 years old"
Huh, didn't know Shin Chan was still going.
Real talk, the staying power of those three anime is no different to Americans keeping around the Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo and Mickey Mouse, no doubt there's an audience that still exists for them, case in point, Crayon Shin Chan's autor has been dead for 14 years now and his work still lives on, so it really won't surprise me if they are still around long after I go.
"Bleach is the first anime to treat black people with any decency"
One of Bleach's stronger qualities is having a very well diverse cast, it's certainly welcome but the statement itself assumes that Anime has this issue to begin with, Japan doesn't have the West's history of racism but it's hardly innocent in how it depicts foreigners, in most cases, it's pure ignorance or just like poking fun at Americans. When anime does depict a black character even before Bleach aired, it's not the same as what Warner Bros did back in the 1940s.
"Yu-Gi-Oh is the best in the shonen genre and has some of the best monster/creature designs in anime and has the #1 waifu in all of anime Mai Valentine"
The person who wrote this one has clearly never seen another anime, while it did run in Shonen Jump it was never setup for the kind of popularity it was going to get nor was it expected to change the world of card games, it's narrative was directed by the product, so it's more a toy anime than a true shonen.
The monster designs are great but so are Pokemon and Digimon's efforts.
Mai Valentine is a trash waifu, her personality is terrible and she's not even a good duelist.
"The three episode rule is kinda stupid since shows can get better"
All depends which anime you apply it to, I've been known to stop anime after 1 episode in the past but I also realise the same wouldn't apply to all anime, but it's got me thinking, I'll take ten popular anime and see if the three episode formula works on them. That'll be my next post.
There's a lot of mention of Sword Art Online being the anime that made Isekai but back in the 90s it was a mostly Shojo Genre.
How far back does it go?
Rumiko Takahashi in 1985 released a short anime called Fire Tripper in which a girl is gas exploded back to feudal Japan, alot of elements were later reused for InuYasha, more on that later. Any anime adaption of Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz counts as well.
What are the Main Anime?
Four big names of yester year spring to mind, Vision of Escaflowne, Fushigi Yuugi the Mysterious Play, Magic Knight Rayearth and Inuyasha, all four feature a female heroine drawn into another world either through dimensions, a magical book, summoned by a preist or dragged backwards through time respectively.
How does Digimon fit into the equation?
Digimon by definition is also an Isekai by the fact that a group of 7-8 kids get sent to the Digital World but has more roots in the monster trend alongside another well known title, Monster Rancher.
Staying on topic how good are these four female led Isekai?
Escaflowne has argubly the most beautiful score ever composed for an anime.
Fushigi Yuugi was instrumental in establishing the Josei genre.
Magic Knight Rayearth put the artist team of CLAMP on the map as one of their best work.
InuYasha is yet another stellar work by Rumiko Takahashi and her best selling series by far.
What went wrong?
Escaflowne had a botched dub release and is widely forgotten next to stable mates Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star, not to mention the plot made no sense and the manga is infinitely different.
The others out stayed their welcome, Rayearth had a dreadful 2nd season, Fushigi Yuugi has not aged well and has been out of the spotlight for two decades now, InuYasha kept going and going and became the punching bag in the awkward era of the 00s where anime was struggling with a hangover, it's also aged the worst of the four shows.
As for Digimon, each season was getting less and less returns until they decided on Digimon Tri and a season 1 reboot.
Did Sword Art Online save Isekai?
Kind of, it's premise added elements that weren't available in 90s Isekai and took inspiration from harem, shonen and even thriller in some cases, Sword Art Online also took inspiration from Dot Hack Sign.
Now we can't get rid of Isekai
Blame covid, Japan's abysmal birth rate and Sword Art Online outstaying it's welcome, on the bright side, female led Isekai made a return with Saints Magic is Omnipotent and to a lesser extent Bofuri, we also have enough try hards to keep anime interesting and it's not devoid of having it's formula mixed in ever more dangerous ways, it's not like the tail end of the early 2000s where anime actually stagnated.
