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!
Haim Saban and Shuki Levy are names associated with bringing the Super Sentai genre over to the west rebranded as Power Rangers, with action scenes taken from the original source and dubbed over while civilian themes are filmed and added, during this reign, many of it's original line up became house hold names with Amy Jo Johnson, the original Pink Ranger introducing a behind the scenes look at Saban's latest attempt, Princess Tenko and the Guardians of Magic.
The idea was to promote an idol singer from Japan in the western market, while it was common practice in anime to promote an idol with their own show, Saban hoped the idea would click with Western audiences while they rode a high with Power Rangers.
They went with Mariko Itakura, an idol magician dubbed Princess Tenko, the premise was to make Tenko a Guardian of sacred gems that get scattered all over the world due to a dispute with jealous rivals, the gems give Tenko magical transformations into various forms that grant power, likely a test run to see if a magical girl show would click with audiences with Sailor Moon up for localization around the same time, that's a long story in itself, don't ask.
After each episode, the actual Mariko Itakura will teach you one of her magic tricks.
The show was rough in terms of presentation and about as cheesy as you can get, I admire Tenko for being one of the early pioneers of female led action shows, but compared to the decade earlier She-Ra, lacks the charm that made that cartoon such a success.
As for Princess Tenko, she gained notoriety for her status as a favourite performing artist of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il; as far as I know she's still active as a magician.
Like it or not, I'm old, but as I sit in my lounge recovering from a cold while Retrowave plays in the background, I can't help but reminisce of the Halcyon Otaku Days.
10. Dub Acting
Yes it was raw in places but I found the mix of dubbing teams across America, Canada and even my own UK fascinating, these days it's just crunchyroll and while the quality is better it's not exactly memorable anymore. Also I liked it when it was just acting and no baggage.
9. OVAs
I find too many mediocre anime undeserving of getting 12 episode runs all the time, those are the shows that needed the three episodes at most treatment, they are generally better quality and make more of an effort to cram in the best it has to offer.
8. Advertisement
Above is an image from a magazine promoting ADVFilms releases, this is back in the day where everything was advertised no matter how obscure it seemed.
(I don't miss the absurdity of being charged more for the sub)
7. Trailers
ADV used to put trailers on before every anime showing, I would not have discovered anime without it.
6. Discovery Stories
Gone are the days where you can discover anime on your own and have a story to go along with it, these days you just find out because it appeared in Fortnite.
5. Variety
You'd think it would get better but the variety has actually gotten worse in recent years, another look at the picture, you see a Sci-Fi, a Historical Drama and a Fantasy. These days it's Isekai, a slightly different Isekai or a no this is actually a good Isekai along with a host of other shows with an outstanding waifu as it's main selling point, along with a show just to keep Twitter busy for the season, what ever is still airing despite it being years old and a major anime revived from the dead.
4. Less Long Series
Remember the days you thought nothing could be as long as Inuyasha? Long series are nothing new, they hold the record for it but there are way too many these days, no one asked for a fight to take nearly half a year to finish!
3. TV Channels Playing Anime
I'm a Toonami viewer and a FoxKids viewer, I also lived through the 4Kids era, dodgy censorship aside, I wouldn't know half of the most legendary anime without it having a TV spot.
2. Old Anime Style
I still miss the old styles of anime, it was striking, sharp and felt more adult.
1. Missing the Wow Factor
Anime rarely wows me these days, this plays into why so many modern anime are missing from my top lists.
Notes: Age, changing tastes and how much anime I've consumed has played a role in my recent slumps in watching anime, there are things I don't miss about the past as well. Call it rose tinted glasses but I can't help but miss the old days of anime.
To offer something to my often overlooked Western Cartoons, I present some alternative genres to look at.
All of these will be top ten lists along with some history.
Here are our genres
Pink Cadillacs of California
Toy Commercials of Power
Really Desperate Celebrities
Groovy Mysteries
Teenage Radical Animal Squad
Monsters are Still Cool
I can be Japanimation to!
Dinosaurs are Always Cool
Not Looney Tunes
Stupor Heroes
Clearly not for Kids
That's not what Happens in the Game
The Movie was Better
Animals They be People
Zero IQ Required
Non English Speaking Production
Hand Made in Britain
Afrotastic
Canadian Eh?
What are you?
Artistic Disaster
I'm a ten year old you can trust me
Our next TV Season will be Animated
We did it before Pixar
Needs more edge not that I care
Babality
Teenage Dirtbags
War what is it Good for?
It's what I go to School for
This Remake respects the Original?
If you want me to cover one of these genres, feel free to leave a comment.
This will run alongside Project 1000.
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