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!
Everyone knows a good transformation when they see one whether it be a makeover, power up or a magical transformation, there are your iconic ones like Sailor Moon but there are others that may not be as well looked at as you might think, got a whopping 25 entries with no restrictions, in no order either.
1. Beyblade G Revolution
Ming Ming is a magical idol of sorts as she's very much younger than the rest of the main cast but when she blades, she shows up in her true age dropping the UwU act.
2. Akazukin Chacha
Chacha is another unique one as not only does she get older everytime she transforms into her princess warrior form but requires rings worn by her two best friends to work.
3. Tenchi Universe
Azaka and Kamidake were often seen as mobile logs that protected Ayeka at all times but Universe gave them prominent forms as Royal Guards more akin to what were used to seeing whenever Tenchi and Ayeka battled, honourable mention to Achika for her battle form.
4. Sailor Moon
We've seen the scouts transform enough times to the point that it has it's own official run time in the Anime Encylopedia, but during the Sailor Moon S movie we were treated to Luna's human form, argubly one of the most beautiful transformations in anime.
5. Kiss Him Not Me
Kae Serinuma throwing a sulking tantrum over a dead anime character stops eating only to emerge as a bishojo attracting every guy in sight.
6. Suite Precure
Precure is no stranger to villain face heel turns but the former feline Cure Beat not only becomes a Precure but loses her cat form in the process, on the bright side she has guitar hair.
7. Wedding Peach
I like how utterly pointless the wedding dresses are in the transformations but they still showcase them every episode anyway.
8. The Incredible Hulk
A rare western example from the 90s cartoon of the Hulk in She-Hulk. Following the blood transfusion, the radiation doesn't make her so much angry but trigger what I can best place as pleasure making her flirty rather than angry.
9. Cinderella Monogatari
The simplest transformation on this list, an extra petticoat, a bow and an elaborate hairdo is enough to see out the royal ball for Cinderella.
10. Pretear
Himeno gets several costumes to wear but come with the added bonus of all her husbandos transforming into her costumes.
11. One Piece
Nico Robin going all giantess demon with Demonio Fleur, utterly terrifying to witness and insanely brutal to watch.
12. Dragonball Super
It's not Ultra Instinct or whatever passes for Gohan's latest Saiyan form it's Trunks' Rage Saiyan form after he snaps fighting Black Goku, his look resembling Broly in the eyes.
13. Mahou Shounen Majorian
We've seen young girls become teens to battle but how about young boys become teen girls, the dynamic here is less the TG transformation and more the dynamic between the duo as their relationship is bullying because the victim is too feminine, the irony.
14. Kiddy Grade
Eclair and Lumiere go through so many forms that it needs it's own entry to explain it.
15. Uta Kata
Here's the Kiddy Grade creator releasing a magical girl show with a different costume designed by a different mangaka every episode.
16. Magical Emi
The green haired magician girl is another girl to teen transformation but with a design that can only exist in the 80s.
17. Card Captor Sakura
The only time Sakura ever went through a transformation was the first time she gave herself wings complete with a dress that Tomoyo didn't design.
18. Hime Otogi Lilpri
Aikatsu and Pripara follow the same theme of costumes on cards but Hime Otogi Lilpri has the element of surprise on their side.
19. Miraculous Ladybug
Our second western entry focusses on Shrinking Violet Goth Girl Juleka who becomes Purple Tigress.
Looking at the pictures, you wouldn't guess it was the same person, well it is the power of clout.
20. Interspecies Reviewers
Our randy Reviewers decide to transform into women to see what sex feels like in their shoes, five star ratings all round.
21. Marchen Awakens Romance
The talking hammer weapon Babbo comes with some extreme forms including a gargoyle, a sexy goth angel and OP Puss in Boots.
22. Kuragehime
I could include any character makeover in this show but Mayaya's is the most dramatic, goes to show what the promise of capsule toys means to an Otaku.
23. Tokyo Mew Mew
The best choreographed transformation sequences in all of anime.
24. Star Twinkle Precure
They sing their transformation sequence, why didn't anyone else think of that?
25. Ranma 1/2
Will need it's own entry really, girl Ranma you always wonder who's really in control of the body, Ranma or the cursed drowned girl.
Smell that burning? It's hot take time!
"Anything shonen does well, magical girl anime do better"
No it really doesn't, Magical Girl anime follows a different set of rules, the main difference is as Megamind calls it presentation, for example Sailor Moon's most memorable battles are usually the last episodes of the current season, in comparison Dragonballz have big long battles but some of the most iconic moments such as Goku and Vegeta's first beam clash wasn't even the finishing blow, some exceptions do exist but skew the line of the genre.
"I despise hearing Hiroshi Kamiya's voice"
Let's see a selection of his work.
Some decent performances there, not seeing why you hate him.
Real talk, It's difficult to judge a foreign language from the point of view of a non native speaker, I have plenty to say about the dub casts but the original Japanese voices not so much.
"Death Note would've been better through L's perspective"
Fairly convinced they've already done this but to answer the take, L isn't strong enough to hold Death Note together as a lead, the whole appeal of Light is that his practically childlike take on morality is what makes Death Note such a compelling story from his point of view because at no point does he consider that what he's doing is wrong.
"Most mecha shows would be better if they just removed the mechs considering how little they actually mattered"
I wouldn't say most but there are a few examples of mecha being added as an after thought, Rayearth, Code Geass, Nadesico and Escaflowne all spring to mind in this regard but at the same time, said shows would barely get off the ground without some thing that could be marketed as merch, like it or not it still has to make money.
"Infinite from Sonic Forces was a good character"
No, he was awful! It's the absolute culmination of god awful edgy 2000s and the absolute worst of fan character culture, how can anyone look at this jackal thing and not cringe from how hard he's trying at being an edgelord only to be humbled by Shadow the Hedgehog.
I wrote the following hot take on the YouTube channel Anime America Podcast for their Hot Take Video.
"Clamp are great artists but terrible writers"
My biggest surprise was that it got read on the actual video.
The host Robyn laughed at the hot take which was a better reaction than I expected followed by what I can assume good examples of Clamp's works.
Responding to the Examples
Robyn gave me the examples of Chobits, Card Captor Sakura, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles and Wish, Robyn admitted herself that Wish was a guilty pleasure rather than a good story.
I found Chobits hard to follow, Card Captor Sakura never seems to do anything other than re-trace old steps every season, there's never a more grandiose reason for Sakura to keep obtaining Clow Cards.
Tsubasa is exactly what Nelvana wanted Card Captor Sakura to be but Li Syaoron is about as effective at leading a story as Goku is dieting, he's really not suited to the job, not helping is what they made Sakura into.
There is a Theme
One of the things I notice about Clamp's works is that they don't seem to flow well the later into the story nor do they seem to end in a good place.
Rayearth should've finished with season 1 but we all had to endure the melodrama of season 2, Angelic Layer had to change their plot and ending in the anime because the manga's plot and ending was so stupid.
Don't get me started on the whole X debacle or the Clampverse links.
I Don't Hate Clamp
To make it clear I don't hate Clamp, I'm just frustrated by how close they can come to a really great story but ultimately throw it all away, but I still love works like Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic and Rayearth. They are supremely talented and really set a high standard for art that is distinctively theres and no one elses.
This post looks at characters of the past and where the old trends stand now, we start with female characters, males will get their own eventually.
1. Valkyrie Girls
Also known as the Valkyrie Bitch, these harlots are no nonsense action types, the best example being Black Lagoon's Revy.
They enjoyed a boom during the cyberpunk era of the late 80s and are still in demand today thanks to Chainsaw Man.
2. Wrestling Girls
Prominent in the 80s, wrestling girls influences can be found in shows like Dirty Pair, it's existence today is split between tag team partnerships between two females, also known as the Lovely Angels trope or literal wrestling sports anime with a twist like Keijo.
3. Tsundere Girls
Popularised by Rumiko Takahashi's Urusei Yatsura and continuing long into the 00s the tsundere hot and cold personality was a core part of romance anime, they are a dying breed these days replaced by socially awkward girls and girls who just tease the male characters.
4. Magician Girls
This is a fascinating one that comes with a unique story of a particular Japanese Idol who managed to break the American market that I'll be tempted to talk about, in it's day, the magician girl commanded admiration but is now an embarrassing fetish.
5. Delinquent Girls
Credited with being the very first lead action girl in the medium, the Delinquent Girls starting from the mid 70s were an inspiration to all who followed after, it's also credited for making the Sailor Fuku uniform an anime staple, not Sailor Moon. Very rare to see nowadays but kept alive prominently by Vtuber Kson.
6. Idol Girls
The age of City Pop and the popular anime idol of Macross Lynn Minmay, gave rise to the idol singer along with magical idols Creamy Mami. These days it's based on collectable card games for girls but is still very much popular.
7. Mysterious Girls
Popularised by the now late Leiji Matsumoto, the mysterious girl has an aura of intense beauty and mystery about them, on a journey of self discovery with very little to go on, you can't help but follow them, hard these days for these types of characters to stay relevant when the internet knows everything.
8. Fantasy Girls
Prominent lead females in fantasy anime everything from the Magic Knights of Rayearth to Lina Inverse, they dominated much of the 80s and 90s. These days they are harem bait for isekai protagonists.
9. Space Girls
Also known as bridge bunnies, these girls are seen as supporting roles on a larger more prominent battle ship, sometimes piloting mechs. Sci-Fi isn't much of a thing anymore but Gundam finally gave a female character top billing.
10. Drama Girls
The mature girls who engage in sometimes forbidden romances, all the rage in 80s shojo, largely forgotten these days as it just doesn't sell well.
11. Thief Girls
Since Fujiko Mine and the girls of Cat's Eye gave thief girls a place, they've always managed to keep a real sex appeal, ironically Lupin and Cat's Eye will crossover later this year keeping the honour among thieves alive.
12. Classic Girls
And finally we have classic girls or European girls. Take a popular piece of literature from Europe and turn it into an anime. Not a big deal anymore and Magus Bride only barely qualifies for the same genre.
If you want me to expand on any of these posts, drop a comment.
I really didn't want to write this but it's absolutely everywhere and there's a lot about it that makes me uncomfortable.
I think it's about time everyone grows up, while I understand that people will be upset that the creator of their favourite thing is really a bad person, the things they created are fiction, it's a story, it's irrelevant in the bigger picture.
The success of every creation is not entirely down to one person either, it's a pyramid of succession that goes through everything from TV series to merchandising made by a couple thousand people, it's a million dollar, sometimes billion dollar business that's already made it's mark before these horrible things about the creators came out, there's enough fans of each property who are oblivious to the controversies and they will still buy said product, this doesn't mean they are against some movement, they just want to read about a bespectled wizard boy going to a wizard school, a wandering samurai hoping for redemption or a drunk grandfather and his grandson hopping through the multiverse.
They couldn't care less about the creator.
What do I think of the three creations in question?
Harry Potter is fine nothing special, I wouldn't go out my way to buy an $80 video game about it when my money can be better spent on feeding myself decent food for two weeks.
Rick and Morty is just a slightly smarter Adult Swim show, the humour gets old very quickly and it's not as smart as it pretends to be.
While I do like Rurouni Kenshin, the anime was a mess, the prequels were beautiful but the TV series was messy, the motion picture was bad and the sequel was cringy, as for Busou Renkin....
The less said about that monstrosity the better.
One thing that does make my blood boil is harassment of any kind against people who consume these media pieces without fuss.
Someone actually made a program to track down people who streamed Hogwarts Legacy and streamers have been bullied for daring to play it, it's a disgusting practice that I'm pretty sure is also illegal.
I speak as someone who spent their teens and twenties being bullied out of 90% of my interests.
If you can separate art from the artist, that's great.
If you can't separate art from the artist, that's fine but don't harrass those who can or take a neutral stance or are oblivious to the issues.
If you really want to bring attention to the issues you feel so strongly about then turn that energy into something more positive, give to a charity that helps victims of vile crimes, go comfort a friend who needs you, volunteer at a soup kitchen, plant some trees, do literally anything else other than hide behind a keyboard and Twitter just to get angry over a piece of fiction!
As a New Zealander once said.
"Be respectful, be wholesome, don't be a manus and I'll see you next post"
