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!
Not done one of these for a while.
"Anime doesn't do women well"
This person is either blind, ignorant, stupid or has only seen ten anime, let's go with ten anime. It's easy to look at the ten most popular anime right now and think there isn't much in the female character department, Naruto definitely hasn't got that development but has improved in Boruto, My Hero Academia isn't much better but at least has a couple of standouts. I think the issue here is watch more than ten anime and don't be afraid to push out of your comfort zone.
"People only remember Macross for the idols"
It's the only thing I remember about Macross.
Real talk, when Macross was released it was up against the more colour friendly Gundam so in order to standout more, they added idols which also coincided with the new craze of idols in the 80s, after seeing Lynn Minmay, it's hard to picture that Macross was indeed a war sci-fi with fighter jet mechs, a lot of 40+ year olds would disagree with me but Lynn Minmay was so popular back then that there was an idol in every series of the show afterwards and that is harder to defend, even Gundam Seed's Lacus Clyne is a nod to Minmay.
"Vegeta is stronger than Goku"
Not really but Vegeta is the better man. Ego aside, his background makes him very well versed in being a leader and knowing what's important.
"Taiga from Toradora is a dumb character"
I've not seen Toradora but given how I feel about tsunderes recently, I don't think I'll like her, hardly a dumb character though, she's better written than most tsunderes, in fact the best written tsundere of all time isn't even an anime character, it's Hey Arnold's Helga Pataki.
"Bleach is overhated"
It's balanced and the criticism it gets is justified considering how much of it's own universal laws it had to break to make the story work.
The early 2000s was a new frontier for fandom as the internet gave fans a new way to access anime, but before meme culture began, anime gained their popularity through the Anime Music Video, in some cases, this is the only way they've gained any kind of name.
10. Any Magical Girl Show in the 2000s
Any amateur AMV designer has used a magical transformation sequence at some point, Tokyo Mew Mew and Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch two of the most common next to of course Sailor Moon.
9. Bleach
Difficult to judge whether this is an AMV or the first million views anime Meme, Ieva's Polka of Orihime spinning the leek on loop.
8. Golden Boy
The unique story of a hard worker with the ability to attract any woman with unseen charisma alone; It's legend began in AMVs.
7. El Hazard
Haba Haba Zot Zot! El Hazard's ego fuelled enemy Jinnai proves to be the highlight of an otherwise forgotten anime.
6. Battle Athletes
Some of the earliest popular AMVs started with Battle Athletes, yeah I bet you didn't know this was an anime at all, expect a review soon.
5. Kodocha
Known as Kodomo no Omacha or Child's Toy, the high octane energetic adventures of a child actress set to William Tell Overture was one of AMV's first million viewers.
4. Kaleido Star
Like the magical girl transformations, the spectacular scenes were easy bait for AMVs, especially using Eurobeat.
3. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Every meme Evangelion ever had, started from AMVs thanks to a little compilation called AMV Hell.
2. Azumanga Daioh
But the real star of the mentioned AMV Hell is Osaka from Azumanga Daioh, her unusual personality is just a breeding ground for all Anime memes.
1. Princess Tutu
Half the reason anime get forgotten is because they were not advertised particularly well, while ADV Films offers a standard ballet anime with all the music associated with it, the AMV titled Hold Ne Now gave us this.
Not only will you not forget this anime, you'll want to seek it out, it perfectly encapsulates the experience of viewing AMVs as it let's you discover anime you never knew you wanted.
Ten years ago, Rooster Teeth dropped a trailer for an animated series on Youtube mysteriously known as RWBY, were introduced to a riding hood dressed girl slaughtering a pack of malevolent wolves, ten years later, despite the death of it's creator, it remains a household name in pop culture but how do the main four girls compare from their trailers to now?
Let's find out.
Ruby Rose
Trailer: Seen as mysterious and comes across as a brooder but a light smile suggests she's not emotionless and confirmed to be alot more bubbly in Yang's trailer, her fight against the wolves is phenomenal and Crescent Rose is the greatest weapon ever created.
Now: Somewhere between genki girl and bubbly fan girl and ultimately learns the most through the many seasons and is able to keep some sense of optimism.
Weiss Schnee
Trailer: Her trailer is an opera performance played over her battle against a large white knight, comes across as being part of high society but hides a loneliness, were looking at a lonely rich girl.
Now: Goes from stuck up to being a genuinely great character who now fights to prove to her family that dis-inheriting her was a mistake. Lonely rich girl averted.
Blake Belladonna
Trailer: Feel bad for her as Adam Taurus stole alot of her thunder, probably why her trailer has the lowest view numbers, comes across as quiet, would rather keep to herself, doesn't really feel that what she's doing is the right thing.
Now: Blake's only real change is the acceptance knowing that she's turned the faunus away from a path of self destruction other than that the trailer pretty much nails Blake's entire character.
Yang Xiao Long
Trailer: Walks casually into a nightclub and proceeds to beat everyone up, bad ass, playful, impatient, cocky, bad tempered, easily triggered, eager to fight, has a past to resolve.
Now: Ultimately gets punished for her impatience and bad temper and is forced to confront the truth about her mother as well as losing her arm in battle. Yang had to rebuild herself from the ground up just to fight again making her the most developed character in the series.
There will be a few more posts on RWBY look forward to it.
It's not often I get to talk about something that completely changed the way Shojo is presented.
Who is Licca-Chan?
The bio for the doll says that she's an 11 year old fifth grader named Rika Kayama, a cheerful, slightly impulsive girl with dreams of being a designer like her mother.
Licca's Creation
She was created in 1967 by shojo manga artist Miyako Maki who is actually the widow of the great Leiji Matsumoto.
The main difference between Licca and Barbie is the size of the doll, with Licca being a mere 21 centimetres in size compared to the larger slender Barbie doll.
As of today, Licca is in her fourth generation with the only real changes are the fashions, jobs and cultures of the time along with slight hair colour alterations, Licca and Barbie are the only two remaining fashion doll brands to be over 50 years old.
How Does it Relate to Anime
Over the years, the doll has collaborated with different anime properties.
The one above is Card Captor Sakura, she's also dressed as Asuka from Evangelion and Lum from Urusei Yatsura, she's even dressed as Hatsune Miku.
The Weird 90s
Ironically sales declined during the run of Sailor Moon and didn't really come back in until the anime finished, the following couple of years saw the anime Super Doll Licca Chan air with some what mixed reception, it's best I save that for an actual review.
Impact on Shojo
One look at the history of Licca's many dresses and outfits can immediately see the influence it had on dressing the shojo heroines that followed making Miyako Maki one of the trailblazers, every elaborate costume ever worn can be traced back to Licca-Chan and while less obvious now with the advent of idol dress up video game card games and the rise of the mobile dress up darling Love Nikki Dress Up Queen, Licca still has a place in the ever evolving world of Japanese childhood.
So a quick fun one for you and probably the strangest line up of fighting game characters since Sega tried to enter the Daytona USA car and Pepsiman.
DreamMix TV World Fighters is a Smash Bros style arena fighting game featuring characters from Hudson Soft, Konami and Takara Toys franchises, the line up of characters consists of names that would make a future in Smash Bros including Simon Belmont from Castlevania and Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid.
Other known Konami characters include, Moai from Gradius, Power Pro Kun from Power Pro Baseball and Twinbee from Twinbee, all well known.
Hudson Soft offers Bomberman obviously but starts getting weird with Master Higgins from Adventure Island, Yugo Ogami from Bloody Roar, Momotaro and Binbogami from Momotaro Densetsu and Manjimaru from Tengai Makyo, little rarer than Konami but not bad.
Takara goes even weirder than that, Optimus Prime and Megatron from Transformers is a no brainer but as the list goes down, it gets weirder, M121 Mason and Aska are from Microman and Cy Girls respectively but at least they are from action toy lines, the former being a science fiction action figure while the latter is a crime fighter action figure and then you get Tyson from Beyblade and Licca-Chan, a fashion doll line called the Barbie doll of Japan.
Licca-Chan did feature as a fighting doll in her own anime in 1998 but the model they use in the PS2 and Gamecube game is more Barbie than the yo-yo wielding mall dweller she looks like in the anime.
Konami are the only ones who got the memo to bring actual well known characters, Hudson Soft other than Bomberman features painfully Japanese only characters and two characters only known by near 40 year old gamers.
Takara tried their best but other than Transformers and maybe the action figure lines, Tyson and Licca are so out of place here.
Such a bizarre era of gaming to bring this game to life; this isn't the only bizarre crossover fighting game to include such left field properties, find out next time.
Also coming soon is a review and story behind Licca-Chan.
