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!
Today we return to fact hunt and we go all video game trivia.
1. Sims has it's own language
Creator Will Wright in order to avoid repetitive dialogue, created his own language for the Sims to speak in game called Simlish, there's a long list of phrases that get repeated frequently and are easily translated into basic dialogue like hello and how are you.
2. Sega made an acronym out of Eggman
Not that long ago, Sonic's official page showcased the picture above.
Evil Genius Getting Mad At Nature.
Makes way too much sense.
3. Sega had a dirty secret
The Sega game Dynamite Dux likely has the dirtiest secret in gaming history, hidden for 30 years, it's only accessible through a hex editor replacing a piece a code with the word dirty to get an R-rated opening sequence, it's too raunchy here but Youtuber Larry Bundy Jr has quite a long video on it.
4. Craziest Castle
Crazy Castle has more licenses for it's game than pretty much any other game.
Looney Tunes, Ghostbusters, Woody Woodpecker, Mickey Mouse, Garfield, Hugo the Troll, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Universal Studios.
5. Creepy Console Sounds
When the original PlayStation couldn't load a disc, it would let you know with two different jingles called Personified Fear and Fearful Harmony, the sounds were built in a way to ward off hackers from using fake discs.
This week I had to replace my overworked 8 year old tv with my first smart TV, over in the UK, we are offered a number of channels for free, the contents of said channels especially the animation section are unusual and I would like to share them with you.
He-Man and She-Ra
Perhaps most jarring are 24 hour streams of He-Man and She-Ra, both the original 80s series, no remakes; I've not watched either for decades and it's just as corny now as it was back then, one note on She-Ra and something I heavily criticised the remake for is the design.
Apart from She-Ra's facial expressions rarely changing, her original design is beautiful, then the remake comes along and it is hideous, if not for the remake's story being brilliant, She-Ra's remake would be terrible. He-Man's remakes will need their own entry to describe that disaster.
Voltron
At least Voltron has all three series on hand, classic, CG and modern remake, I'll definitely have to invest some time as this series needs commitment.
Yu-Gi-Oh and Beyblade
So far the only dedicated anime channel has two anime, all seasons of Yu-Gi-Oh and I assume all series of Beyblade but only G-Revolution has played, a rewatch of season 1 Yu-Gi-Oh was rough, particularly as I'm stuck with 4Kids dubbing while Beyblade is playing it's best season but it is the season with Daichi who I despise.
Mr Bean
A slight look at some British animation, Mr Bean's cartoon is based on the live action comedy of the same name, it lacks the comedy timing that only a live action could bring and there is more dialogue than necessary for what is a mostly silent protagonist.
Dennis the Menace
No this isn't the blonde boy troublemaker who is the bane of Mr Wilson's existence, but a boy in a red and black jersey and shorts with spikey black hair and a spikey black haired dog to match, no one knows who came first as both debuted in comics the same year.
Apart from UK Dennis having a much more dodgy history, the character is largely unchanged since his inception, a testament to his staying power as the Beano UK comic is last UK comic book still in publication.
Alvin and the Chipmunks
The CG remake takes much from the crazy popular 90s version making it one of the most faithful modern remakes of all time but modern music really doesn't do this remake justice however.
Rekkit Rabbit
The latest show from Totally Spies creator Marathon, features everything you expect from one of their shows, unintentional fetish fuel. The actual cartoon is about a magicians rabbit who causes mischief for his new owner after being saved from a magician, throw in actual magic and you have plenty of fun.
Miraculous Ladybug and Cat Noir
One show I'm glad gets played frequently is France's best cartoon since Code Lyoko and Oban Star Racers. Miraculous has lore that surpasses most modern anime, even on the level of it's shojo counterparts, it does better than them. A full review coming soon.
That's a number of highlights from the strange world of British TV, it's free at least.
Often overlooked in favour of it's more popular American counter part by Archie, Fleetway's Sonic the Comic had a few moments that need way more recognition.
1. Metallix is a bad ass name for Metal Sonic
Metallix was the name given to Metal Sonic and his other counterparts and they were just as dangerous as the Video Game equivalent, leading to the Brotherhood of Metallix arc where Metal Sonic served as the big bad.
2. Amy has her own Tails in Tekno the Canary
Amy Rose was designed with more heroic traits rather than the feminine traits she traditionally has in the games, this sadly makes her not only one dimensional but closer to a female Sonic as opposed to her own unique character but she's given her own Tails as a compromise in Tekno, a female canary with all the same traits as Tails but slightly older, this also means you can have Amy play as a substitute to Sonic in her stories and keep the same tropes as Sonic and Tails would.
3. Super Sonic is an evil entity
In order not to have Super Sonic be overpowered they made him a super evil chaotic entity that split from Sonic, it means they don't rely on it to solve major plot points.
4. The little animal friends are now characters
Like Archie, the animal friends that were nameless in the games have names in Fleetway, our heroes in this one are Rabbit Johnny Lightfoot, Pig Porker Lewis and Squirrel Robot Shortfuse to name a few, they bring their own unique spin to the story.
5. Bigger Rogues Gallery
There are way more than just Robotnik, a few highlights include, Megatox a sentient toxic ooze from chemical plant, Dr Zachary an Echidna made to be a foil for Knuckles and the Drakkon Empire, an ancient race not to similar to the old Echidna race in Sonic Adventure, even Robotnik's No.2 Grimer is a green skinned goblin like scientist that can be as sinister as his boss, but speaking of Robotnik.
6. The cleaned up Sonic and Robotnik back story
The backstory Fleetway went with is that Robotnik started as a kind scientist called Dr Ovi Kintobor, yes it's Robotnik backwards, and he got morphed into Robotnik through a combination of Chaos energy and a rotten egg, as for Sonic, he started as a regular coloured hedgehog until he tested super sneakers that turned his fur blue after shattering several speed milestones.
7. Mighty is a member of Chaotix
Mighty has always been the missing ingredient from Chaotix and having him there makes Chaotix complete.
8. Sonic is smarter at the cost of humour
This incarnation of Sonic is more heroic he's alot less 90s attitude than his other counterparts but he at least is alot smarter, he even has a disguise called Bobby Beaky.
9. DRAT does alot for world building
One thing that no series has shown is Robotnik having supporters, this is where DRAT comes in, Dr Robotnik Appreciation Tribe, what makes it funnier is that the boss is a rooster, giving an Adventures of Sonic the hedgehog feel. DRAT helps alot with giving Robotnik more weight as an evil entity.
10. Other Sega Franchises in comic form
Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Kid Chameleon, Eternal Champions, Golden Axe, Decap Attack, Marko's Magic Football, Ecco the Dolphin, Wonder Boy, Sparkster, Mutant League Football and Shining Force were all in comic form during Fleetway Sonic's run, it's a Sega fanboy's wet dream.
One of my fondest memories growing up is reading video game magazines.
Before the advent of the internet, we had all our gaming journalism through printed media, the hype would be screenshots and in depth reviews of each game with the most prominent ones certainly in my country, Gamesmaster and N64 Magazine.
Unlike today's reviewing media that's either deliberately pandering to sponsors, entirely biased based on certain social behaviours or just flatout boring, our team of wisecracking writers never took themselves seriously and usually wrote joke stories behind some of the games to hide the spoilers. Then you have Nintendo Power which needs it's own entry as well as Fleetway Sonic the Comic.
Nintendo Power had comics which has it's origins for Wario and Mario being childhood friends and when Peach crossdressed as Luigi bombing Bowser's castle.
Sonic's run in Fleetway was just as special giving some other early Sega properties a go around the same time as Sonic's prime in Archie.
There are some unique stories to come out of this as well which I'll display on my main page if you want to pick my next deep dive.
A brief summary of some memories there.
Post Pokemania in the late 90s, every company was lining up to grab what could potentially be the next big thing, the new millennium was setting up to be dominated by the new wave of anime set to hit western shores; for TV networks it was like a market day with Toonami and Fox Kids leading the way along with WB who was supporting 4Kids, but as someone who is from the UK and alot channels like Fox Kids and Cartoon Network were on cable, we had to make do with five terrestrial television channels and this is where it gets interesting.
UK TV Machinations
I suppose a brief history is in order, the most prominent channels are 1 and 2 both owned by the BBC, it's ad free but costs money to run as a separate tax thing called a TV licence, as far as I know, UK is the only country that does this; BBC were never in to the idea of anime, their only dabble at the time was an attempt at dubbing Urusei Yatsura for a special report on anime as a new genre and they may have had Monster Rancher but it's unconfirmed, so were left with channels 3-5.
Channel 3 or ITV Independent Television was our main free channel and they latched on to the anime craze early by acquiring Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Sailor Moon.
Channel 4 was actually the first to showcase anime as accounts from friends and my older sister suggests they showcased the much maligned Grindhouse scene which briefly became a news piece for concerned parents, channel 4 would later buy the rights to Studio Ghibli's film library.
That just leaves Channel 5, the newcomer who was building a solid library with their kids section known as Milkshake, this was pre-Peppa Pig in 2002 so they weren't taken seriously, since ITV had all the best stuff and Ghibli was in Channel 4's hands, they were left with just Beyblade and the we have Yu-Gi-Oh at home Duel Masters, but they also licensed an anime from 2000 which too this day, is it's only known English speaking western TV release making it probably the only UK exclusive anime to date, this anime is Strange Dawn.
What on Earth is Strange Dawn?
The story revolves around two school girls named Yuko and Eri who get summoned by a princess to save a world dominated by little semi-humans, basically taking regular people and seeing how they react to a world of SD characters or Super Deformed the proper term for chibis.
The anime itself to pardon the pun is strange, it's hard not to feel put off when you compare the two girls to the semi-humans, my memories of the series are vague but I remember Yuko being insufferable throughout and the final episode being a "what just happened" moment, after that it never aired again, the only taste America got of Strange Dawn was an incomplete home release through Urban Vision which no longer exists so for collectors, those DVDs will be worth a fortune, the only known existence of an English dub is the English opening theme dumped on Youtube, so the dub at least for now is lost media.
It always baffled me for years why Channel 5 picked this anime over everything else at the time, a quick look at the releases in that period, they could've had titles so much better quality than Strange Dawn.
They could've had Zoids over this but I doubt we would get a story like this again as better licensing means we basically get whatever America gets.
I will attempt to review it after watching the subtitled version so look out for that.
