Welcome to the Fantasy Zone
This Zone is dedicated to the lesser known elements of anime hosted by the cast of Victory Script.
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You name it, it's all covered here in the Fantasy Zone!
One of the more fascinating anime cancellations was that of Medabots, it was one of the few franchises that gave Pokemon a run for it's money mostly in Japan especially in the late 90s early 2000s but there are at least five major moments that cost Medabots dearly and all of it can be traced to the abysmal season 3, Medabots Spirits.
1. Beloved characters were removed.
Season 3 removed Henry, Koji, Sumilidon, Karin, Neutranurse, Rokusho, and Mr. Referee.
While Henry's arc was complete he's still one of the strongest rivals for Ikki.
Koji while I wasn't keen on still served a role as another rival.
Sumilidon is my favourite Medabot.
Karin was a fascinating character who really caught people by surprise with how off the wall she could be, she's like Princess Peach as a child.
Neutranurse was a mechanized Nurse Joy.
Rokusho is always the mascot next to Metabee, in fact a high number of games with two versions often had Rokusho as the cover mascot.
Mr Referee is an absolute legend.
What we got was no.2
2. What replaced them was terrible.
Other than Dr Aki's grand daughter, every new character was awful, I remember nothing of the new characters.
3. The upgrades to Metabee made him look like a toy.
My memory is plagued by Metabee being turned into an RC car, to elaborate, Metabee had an upgrade where his limbs had wheels, so he'd go on all fours, he looked like a large RC car making him look like an actual toy, a strange criticism to make about a toy anime but the whole point is to make them seem real, this is the same series that has a subplot about Medabots being murder bots don't forget.
4. 2nd Season felt like a true ending.
There was a sense of finale with season 2s ending, the only thing that really needed to happen was an epilogue to complete every character's story arc much like how Precure does it for their final episodes.
5. The franchise was already dying.
The bigger picture is that Medabots was a zombie franchise, it was existing in stagnation with endless games, two of which released barely months apart, (sound familiar Pokemon Scarlet and Violet?) It didn't help that toy anime were kinda losing their way, it wasn't just Medabots either, you can make convincing arguments for Beyblade, Yu-Gi-Oh, Bakugan and Digimon as well.
To this day, Medabots was an underrated franchise that failed to stay relevant despite the best efforts of it's makers.
It's a warning to all anime who take their audience for granted.
When it comes to anime, other nations don't tend to feature too prominently and when they do, the usual suspects show up be it Chinese, Russian, British, American, French or even German.
They also tend to run the well dry of Egyptian, Greek and Italian due to their ancient cultures, so this list celebrates the countries that don't get a look in.
Few rules
1. Fighting Game anime is cheating.
2. Doesn't count if the anime is set in a certain country, for example I can't use a Mexican character in an anime set in Mexico, kind of cheating there as well.
3. Sports anime with international arcs or international casts is cheating as well with only a couple of exceptions.
This is in no set order.
Honourable Mention
Iron Mouse from VShojo
Puerto Rican
While not an actual anime character, she has put her country on the map with how much she contributes to the internet.
1. Celty Sturluson from Durarara
Irish
Irish folklore speaks of a headless horseman known as a Dullahan, in the world of Durarara, Celty is the motorcycle riding Dullahan working as a transporter in the shady underworlds of Durarara. Might feel a bit cheap using a folklore character but unlike the Fate series, Celty gives the Irish some positive representation.
2. Rosarita Cisneros from Black Lagoon
Colombian
Better known as Roberta, she's the most terrifying of Black Lagoon's trio of scary women, the world of Black Lagoon takes the world's most notorious crime syndicates and puts them in Thailand for an uneasy alliance. The cartels of South America aren't normally a threat as they usually get the blunt end of rage from Revy and Balalaika but then Roberta shows up and all you can do, is pray that she doesn't find you.
3. Victor from Medabots
Kenyan
Stoic, imposing and a little terrifying, Victor raised the stakes in the Medabots World Tournament, with justified goals, he's one of the earliest instances of a complex villain in the realm of toy anime. War Bandit as well is a beast.
4. Azmaria Hendric from Chrono Crusade
Portuguese
A miracle healer in the guise of a weak willed girl who tries her best to help out Rosette and Chrono, a little frustrating to watch but does pay off at the finale.
5. Aila Jyrkiainen from Gundam Build Fighters
Finnish
Gundam Build Fighters is what happens when Bandai tell you that there isn't enough money in model kits and tells you to make an anime out of it.
Aila passes for the Cyber Newtype character having been conditioned to use her abilities to gain the upper hand in battle with the personality to match. Speaking of which.
6. Allenby Beardsley from G Gundam
Swedish
G Gundam doesn't have the best history with portraying countries, Sweden is one of the only countries to avoid this stereotype with Allenby being everything Domon is in female form and has Gundam Sailor Moon.
7. Irina Jelavic from Assassination Classroom
Serbian
Ah yes Bitch Sensei, could've quite easily been Russian but they went for Serbian instead since the surname is Serbian in origin. She's one of many tasked to eliminate Koro-Sensei but really is terrible at the job.
8. Negi Springfield from Negima
Welsh
Poor Wales never seems to get any respect as England and Scotland normally take the honours but people forget that wizardry is founded in Welsh folklore, that's the mindset Ken Akamatsu went with Negi, going as far as visiting Wales himself for inspiration. Honourable mention for CDawgVA for being the internet's most prolific Welsh Youtuber.
9. Elza Forte from Aikatsu Stars
Monégasque
French wasn't high class enough for Elza Forte, so she's from Monaco instead, a principality known for glamour, wealth, gambling and motor racing, every bit of Elza's design is ultra Ojou-Sama right down to her presence and her dress, just look at that picture.
10. Amuro Ray from Gundam
Canadian
That's right, one of anime's most famous characters is a Canadian, the Newtype that stumbled onto a Gundam and became a legend. That's a massive character to have for a country often overlooked because of America.
I touched on this briefly with Mai, Hilary and many times with Chloe, the point being that alot of popular anime don't do their opposite gender justice. No order for this list.
1. 90% of Harem anime
The lead male is dumb, the lead female is oblivious.
Get the obvious one out the way first, a typical male is frequently beaten up, a loser, accidental pervert; while the typical female is completely oblivious to her situation and has no concept of red flags. Harem is kinda out of fashion thankfully, so it's not really a factor so much anymore.
2. Dragonballz
Bulma dominates the female cast too much.
For much of Dragonball history the very few female fighters we do get were limited to Android 18; Super and FighterZ bridged the gap but even now, Bulma still dominates as the female representative.
3. All Digimon seasons bar Tamers
Female digi-destined were kinda just making up numbers.
It started with Tai and Matt getting all the attention, then it was Davis despite the fact Kari and TK were meant to lead, Tamers did it right but then it reverted back to old habits with future seasons. While Kari provided actually plot relevance, Sora and Mimi didn't.
4. Medabots
They did Samantha dirty.
The sad thing about Medabots is that they had a really good female character in Samantha but they cut her relevance to the plot so much that she may as well have left the anime.
5. Beyblade
It took three seasons to get a decent female blader.
Mariah and Emily were strong bladers refused to be allowed any actual battling. The less said about Hilary the better. Took until G Revolution to finally fix this issue.
6. Pokemon Galar Season
Chloe had nothing to do.
They gave Goh a mission to catch Mew, Ash is the lead so enough said, Chloe had one Pokemon contest and advice from previous female leads, that's Chloe's entire contribution to the anime.
7. Non UC Gundam
It's taken about 30 years for a decent female pilot.
Nothing really against female casts of the non universal century Gundams as they all have strengths in their own way, but the only really decent female pilots we've had are Allenby of G Gundam and this seasons Witch from Mercury, that's pretty poor from a franchise with well balanced gender casting.
8. Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters
Female duelists get a bad rep.
I've covered this already with Mai, other than Ishizu, every female duelist is average, terrible or get through with hand holding, future seasons fixed this.
9. Naruto
Female ninjas are pretty terrible.
Much has been said about Sakura's history, Ino has a poor move set for combat, Hinata is in the wrong anime, Temari lost much of her role after marrying Shikamaru. The adults fair much better but they are not main characters. Oh yeah there's Tenten, what did she do again?
10. Pretty Cure
Despite promoting inclusiveness, there's still no official male Precure.
Hugto Precure broke the mold with the now legendary line "Boys can princesses to" this followed with the first ever male Precure and a season devoted to the message of everyone is Precure, young, old and any gender. That was Season 15, Season 20 is next year, and were still no closer to the elusive male Precure, current season discount Tuxedo Mask does not count.
Whether you like it or not, time is a constant and things change as does taste and needless to say these characters haven't aged well.
There's no set order either.
1. Gourry Gabriev from Slayers
Slayers is a fantastic series of very capable characters, pity Gourry isn't one of them, the sheer gap between Lina Inverse and Gourry in power and abilities make for grim reading for the blonde swordsman, not helping his case is trying to be chivalrous to a character that doesn't need help and spending way too much time being the butt monkey.
2. Chang Wufei from Gundam Wing
I was surprised how well Gundam Wing aged but then lose it when you see how much of a misogynist Chang Wufei is, while the franchise isn't short on dramatic fighting types and you can make a decent case for the G Gundam cast to appear on this list also, at least G Gundam wasn't belittling the female characters it did have.
3. Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière from Familiar of Zero
Flaunts her title as an excuse to abuse the lead character, need I say more.
4. Kagome Igarashi from Inuyasha
You could make a case for Akane Tendo but some of her tsundere outbursts are justified considering the company she's around, Kagome doesn't have that excuse, at first Inuyasha did need keeping on a leash but when Kagome practically abuses it for the whole run of Inuyasha it doesn't leave me with much to like.
5. Naru Narusegawa from Love Hina
Get used to the tsunderes, they're usually my first target for these lists.
Naru after a while was really only abusing Keitaro to hide her own insecurities, it's hard to watch at times.
6. Lynn Minmay from Macross
She is literally just eye candy and every sci-fi idol has surpassed her even within her own franchise.
7. Belldandy from Ah My Goddess
Has all the personality of a domestic doormat and easily one of the most beautiful female characters of her era, yet I hate every story that focuses on her.
8. Ryo Saeba from City Hunter
Bad ass or not, you can't get away with Johnny Bravo womanizer behaviour even in anime, Ryo is a frustrating character to watch at times.
9. Haruhi Suzumiya from Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
I haven't really forgiven her for some of the worst aspects of anime fandom, that will require it's own list in the future.
10. Hilary Tachibana from Beyblade
It's thanks to Hilary that Beyblade never really evolved beyond a boys club. It basically boils down to toy anime not being very inclusive, something that hasn't changed much even today.
To continue this mini series of eras and Generations lets look at the Pokemon anime
To clarify were looking at Ash Ketchum, his companions, the defining moments and the what worked and what didn't.
Updated: Re-done the current anime season.
Kanto
Looking back, Kanto is kind of goofy, but among all the seasons you can pick more memorable episodes from this over the other seasons any day.
It is to the detriment of Ash who is woefully amateur as a trainer and gets away with way too much.
Brock and Misty are fairly down to Earth but I say Brock has the better personality while Misty more often than not feels like she is just "the girl" in the group.
Orange Islands
I found it interesting to go off on a non game world as it built in some fun battle dynamics that are now part of canon game mechanics and explored some of the more interesting parts of Pokemon history.
Ash is actually getting better showing that he is learning from his mistakes.
Misty barely improves while Tracy is so one dimensional that any character of the day could replace him.
Johto
Like Kanto but not as memorable, mostly because it fixed many of Kanto's short comings losing it's cheesy edge but the Pokemon league was something to behold finally settling the score with Gary.
Ash has kept steady progress but gave away wayyyyy too many pokemon.
Misty is still the same while Brock returning was very much welcomed and he came new and improved.
Hoenn
Hoenn felt like it hadn't learned much from Johto, it kept the same dynamics as Johto but it did give a more defined goal to the female lead, again the later part of the season was the strongest.
Ash leaving his Pokemon behind with Professor Oak was a much smarter decision than you think as he got to grips with newer Pokemon, Ash was starting to look like a better trainer.
Brock sticking around was welcomed and continued his goofy big brother role for Ash while we have a new female in May who I like for being on Ash's level as a second protagonist but I dislike walking dictionary Max for just being an annoying kid brother. This is also the first season where Team Rocket finally gets something other than incompetent villains.
Sinnoh
Sinnoh was incredible, it massively improved in quality and gave Ash and Dawn both top billing. This is Pokemon at it's best.
This is the strongest Ash will ever be as a Pokemon trainer.
Dawn's arrival is very much welcomed and something the series needed, a solid multi dimensional female lead. Misty was one note while May was copying notes from Ash, Dawn gave us the best girl. Brock is still there but was running out of steam by end of season and again I welcome Team Rocket being more than incompetent villains.
Unova
Oh no, ohhhhh noooooo, what happened? Quality just dive bombed and never recovered and it's mostly down to characters.
To be fair on Ash, this is the closest he will get to acting like his game counterpart as his training style reflects how the game is played.
Iris is trying to be Misty and fails, this would've been fine if she was only in a couple of episodes but no were stuck with her for a whole season. Don't get me started on Cilan, his deal is that he's a Pokemon Connoisseur which means he can identify how compatible Pokemon are with their trainers, so in short they made him the walking friendship rater from the games. It's a stupid idea, this is the worst season and I wish it never happened.
Kalos
Oh thank god you learned some lessons from the previous season; probably the best in quality animation and has a lot of set pieces and moments that create some spectacular scenes like in the finale.
Ash brought back some bad habits of freeing Pokemon and his team is unconventional to say the least.
Clemont is a welcome replacement to Cilan being a goofy inventor and works really well with little sister Bonnie as a foil who isn't annoying but the Zygarde plot dragged out too long and made Bonnie into a babysitter. Serena is at least better than Iris and Misty but somehow stands out even less than May and Dawn despite her contests being more about being an Idol which is about standing out. I also feel that her storyline is not terrible but I feel that her crush on Ash came to nothing.
Alola
Ummm, okay, that's a different approach. Let's be real the animation is really distracting as it seems more suited to slap stick, but I do give it props for using self aware humour and throwing in scenes that older seasons not even Kanto dare not try, so it's at least ambitious.
Ash kept much of his Kalos traits but seems to grow younger when entering the region and seems to forget all he learned previously.
There is now a group as opposed to two or three companions so to list.
I like Kiawe for his comically serious routine.
I find Sophocles okay, at least it's better than the game.
I like Lana, I feel she's the Misty we deserved.
I like Lillie as well as her character seems more believable than the game.
I never liked Mallow, I felt like I was watching Iris again.
Brief mention on Team Rocket, the whole Bewear adopting them was just weird.
Galar
Now the season is reaching it's climax I have to say that it's the weakest season.
A lot of good characters from the Galar region were done dirty in favour of a more open world narrative with the idea of the world championships.
It's great if you're Ash Ketchum as he finally got to show his full strength but not so good for anyone else.
Team Rocket were left with not much to do.
Chloe had nothing to do but watch an Eevee and take notes from previous female protagonists.
Goh can f**k right off, as his story about finding Mew and just randomly catching Pokemon didn't make for a good narrative in an anime adaption, I think I only remember four out of around 100 or so he captured.
I'm glad Ash is now a Pokemon master, I just wish the season reflected that achievement more.
Paldea
Nothing announced yet.
The game follows a three story structure.
The only way I see Ash going to Paldea is if he's personally invited by the Paldea Region's Chairwoman and Champion to compete in the Gym challenge.
There is room for Chloe to redeem herself should they choose to.
Go should never come back.
A different scenario is Ash goes it alone with Nemona, Arven and Penny in tow.
