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!
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.
Recently I went on a binge watch of several anime titles and it's brought up some interesting subjects to discuss.
"Magical Girl Anime is going extinct"
I don't want to agree with this but after seeing the symbol of Precure be given to a pet dog has started adding nails to the coffin. Magical girls these days fall into three categories; copy Madoka Magica, have the entire cast wear whole battle ship parts or be a magical idol show, and with Precure going off the rails, I'm sorry to say that the genre is on life support.
"Anime isn't mature enough"
You want to tell that to him?
Real talk, anime has been willing to tackle subjects that every other medium avoids like the plague, the problem is that the current generation can't handle it, to someone like me, the first episode of Goblin Slayer was tame compared to anything from the forgotten ultra violent era, if anything we've evolved the maturity subject matter to a point that it's covered in a respectable manner as opposed to before when violence, language and sex was thrown in because everyone thought it was more appealing.
"Gundam are out of ideas"
Witch from Mercury definitely takes more from Utena than from Gundam, the issue is that the well has been running dry since Gundam 00, it doesn't help that the demand for Gundam is giving less and less returns, Suletta Mercury being the first female lead isn't exactly competing with Monkey D Luffy for ratings but I did hear positive things about the new Gundam Seed movie so maybe Gundam isn't done yet.
"Romance anime feels cheap"
It's actually getting better, the romance anime I did watch over my binge session over the last four weeks had believable romances, Banished from the Heroes Party was my favourite romance as Red and Rit were legitimately a good couple. Japan is going through a horrible birth rate so having stories of legitimately great romances gives some more credibility to the pursuit of romance, way better than the tsundere era we had grown too used to.
"There will never be another big shonen title"
With Akira Toriyama sadly passing away, the symbol of Shonen anime, it's hard to see if anyone other than the original big three of Naruto, Bleach and One Piece can join Dragonballz as legends. B tier shonen like Fire Force just isn't enough to take the crown, Attack on Titan, Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen will likely fade into obscurity years after they ended, even Naruto and Bleach are struggling to stay relevant.
I waited an entire year before I decided to review the cast of Hirogaru Precure and I have to say, it's very much improved.
Sora came out the blocks with a massive boost and quickly gained a good arc which later ended in such a good climax.
Mashiro was a good partner for Sora even though she fell into the same category as plenty before her, the more shonen built Sora makes the dynamic much stronger though.
Tsubasa as the first main line male Precure needed more to do but ultimately sat in the generic role of making up numbers.
Ageha had the sass and the personality of the older Senpai of the group but even she had to step aside and keep to a support role.
Ellee is just Cure Ace with a more convoluted backstory, also getting sick of having baby characters in Precure now.
Sora Harewataru - Cure Sky - 8.0/10
Mashiro Nizigaoka - Cure Prism - 7.6/10
Tsubasa Yunagi - Cure Wing - 6.7/10
Ageha Hijiri - Cure Butterfly - 7.4/10
Ellee - Cure Majesty - 5.6/10
Best Dressed Award - Cure Prism
Welcome back to Hot Take Review, these takes today are video game related, these are takes that frequently get brought up by my close friends group.
"Fortnite is a bad/great game"
Oh boy starting with this one.
My biggest issue with Fortnite is how much it basks in it's own ego, popular IPs seem to get dunked in with no respect for the source material, the game itself looks at least functional but the Battle Royale gameplay, it's main selling point is a really poor selling point as winning feels impossible, as for build mode, Roblox and Minecraft have you covered. The other issue is, I'm terrible at shooters.
"You can't hate a game you haven't played"
Yes, I can, it's easy.
Real talk, gaming has come a long way from it's renaissance period of the 90s where the only thing you have to go on were game magazines and maybe Blockbuster rentals if you're lucky enough to live close to one, these days there are enough streamers playing the games to give you a sense of what to expect, when the average new release is $75 or £60, it's more important than ever to have as much information as possible, this is why over the last three years I've turned down quite a high number of so called triple A titles.
"Loot boxes and microtransactions need to piss off"
The issue isn't so much the loot boxes and microtransactions but the companies behind them, this evolves from the rising mobile gaming market where the only way to beat Candy Crush is to spend real money, because all these games are free they have to make the money back somehow, Pokemon Go has the right idea where spending is optional, not so much for gacha, Japan's lootbox lottery where lonely males are duped into spending tons of money to get a sexy lady to play as who jiggles their ass on screen, looking at you Goddess of Victory Nikke.
The free model reluctantly does have a place in gaming, my most recent complaint is essentially renting the game for a year in order to play it, this ruined Trackmania and Pinball FX for me.
Also if you're a parent that's been stung because your kid spent $100 on game cosmetics that you let them have to shut them up, then you are a stupid parent.
"Why are games so woke nowadays"
This sounds like an old man yelling at a cloud. We've evolved post pandemic to be a lot less tolerant society and games are no exception, Saint's Row is a prime example of this where the insanity of wacky murder and crime is replaced by cringy tiktok streamers whose idea of crime is review bombing a restaurant. The term woke also feels constantly misused as its more like they only want game writers to spin stories based on what the main political environment is spouting to win favour with a small vocal group of people, it also doesn't help that plenty of skeletons are getting dug out of the closets of the likes of Blizzard, Ubisoft and other big publishers. My attitude is, don't try to adjust your IP for an audience that won't play your game to begin with.
"Achievement Hunters don't play real games"
This gets directed at me alot as an Xbox player.
Much like anime, gaming isn't just ten games, it's a much bigger media spectrum, being an achievement hunter allows me to play games I would otherwise not touch normally, Gamepass and rewards services help to afford this hobby as well.
I get that more often than not you are going to end up playing your fair share of shit games and even the most well known cheevo hunters like Cheevo Guides, Patrick Maka and Welsh Hunter do achieve varying levels of burnout, this isn't helped by Xbox's loose rules system on how achievements are put into games, it all came to a head when Aabs Animals thought that 1000 minutes of staring at animals was acceptable to charge $15 for which lead to Microsoft tightening the rules.
For me these days, it's finding gems among rocks, I would not have discovered games like Vampire Survivors and Hades if I wasn't an achievement hunter and I consider novelty games like Powerwash Simulator free content for my gaming reviews. Lastly, I'm not a young gamer, life takes priority and many of these games average three hours and are easier to return to than say Halo or Forza.
An often over looked trope in anime is the art of "Earning your happy ending"; this is where the main character goes through hard ships around some of the most mean spirited people imaginable constantly wanting said main character to leave or give up, there's a right way and a wrong way of doing this.
Case Study 1 - Kaleido Star
Sora Naegino dreams of being a great star on the Kaleido stage but her boundless optimism doesn't work with the professionalism displayed by the troupe, one by one she has to earn the respect of each character as the series goes on culminating in one of the best finales in anime with season one's final episode but the mean spiritedness continued when May Wong shows up along with Leon.
With the exception of May, Kaleido Star has the right balance to make all the mean spirited moments worth sitting through, there's a big difference between being fired and being told you should leave which is present through out the whole series but it's for Sora to ultimately decide to balance passion and professionalism, feelings ain't enough in this business.
Case Study 2 - Sakura Wars TV
Sakura Shinguji enters a fairly hostile environment at the Imperial theatre both in performing at the theatre and combat;
She has to earn the respect of her peers individually, she even played as Cinderella for one of her performances which isn't very subtle.
The issue is that it's too mean spirited, the official canon of the games suggests that Sakura initially has trouble fitting in more to her own lack of confidence rather than anything the rest of the cast put her through, the TV series which is loosely canon just makes her out as worthless, Sakura's situation is way more complicated than Sora's as her case is more living up to a legacy she hasn't quite grasped rather than a dream of being a star, there was no reason to be this horrible to her.
Case Study 3 - Smile Down the Runway
A series that I'll be reviewing by the end of the week features a designer and the model trying to break into the industry.
Ikuto the designer has potential but quickly finds out how high the bar is to get to the top.
Chiyuki the model is disadvantaged by her height which is too short for being a super model but try telling her to stop and she becomes insufferable.
It's two contrasting characters journeys, one is the right way, the other is the wrong way.
Ikuto is forced to learn that just because he's good at making clothes doesn't mean it's a free pass into the industry, it's pretty cutthroat but Ikuto learns quickly enough to adapt.
Chiyuki on the other hand doesn't really earn her happy ending, she does take things seriously and works hard to achieve her dream but came across as really patronizing at times.
I'll go into more detail on the review.
Case Study 4 - Love Live
Constantly having boundless optimism and pretty much recruiting all of your detractors makes the original Love Live the worst example of this, Honoka Kosaka barely made any effort to reach the top and only through forced drama bombs that she even had to do anything other than just being an insufferable flower child.
Case Study 5 - Shonen Anime
It's not the same for your Narutos, Midoriyas and Luffys, granted Midoriya would fit more into this category and season 1 Naruto definitely has shades of this but the ebb and flow of a typical shonen anime quickly makes the hardships associated with this trope more redundant as they climb the hierarchy.