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!
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.
Surprised to get this far with this series but here we are.
"Anime is better when written by women"
Women have an excellent track record of anime, a lot of that stems from the fact that a woman did the likes of Demon Slayer and Full Metal Alchemist but its fairly balanced in the creator category between the genders.
"Deku is one of the most boring protagonists in shonen anime"
Why doesn't anyone love me?
Real talk, no main character in any long running franchise starts off as the best character or even the most interesting, it's only after their series ends where the audience judges whether or not they were a good character based on how their journey progresses and ends, Deku will get his chance.
"Healin Good Precure handles the shock value more than Madoka Magica could and has a great message about saying no to those who hurt you"
Healin Good Precure was boring, had no shock value, it's ending actually insulted the audience and it's message was saying no to anyone wanting to mess with your body.
Madoka Magica had a magical girl lose her head to a low level enemy quite close to the beginning, that's shocking.
Honestly this hot take was poorly written.
"G Gundam is better than Gundam Wing"
Comparing G Gundam and Gundam Wing is like comparing night and day, they are so different that you forget that they are both Gundam series, both had a hand in reviving the franchise, G Gundam's outlandish designs and ridiculousness revived the franchise from going bankrupt while Gundam Wing finally broke the western market that it's older series couldn't achieve, it's a fascinating story and I hope to write it someday, I don't judge one as better than the other, but I will say that G Gundam got the better dub.
"Zoids deserves a reboot"
I love Zoids Chaotic Century, New Century was okay, everything else was terrible, it's a franchise that is done. I'll tell you what it does need, to be re-releashed on streaming with a new dub.
When it comes to anime, other nations don't tend to feature too prominently and when they do, the usual suspects show up be it Chinese, Russian, British, American, French or even German.
They also tend to run the well dry of Egyptian, Greek and Italian due to their ancient cultures, so this list celebrates the countries that don't get a look in.
Few rules
1. Fighting Game anime is cheating.
2. Doesn't count if the anime is set in a certain country, for example I can't use a Mexican character in an anime set in Mexico, kind of cheating there as well.
3. Sports anime with international arcs or international casts is cheating as well with only a couple of exceptions.
This is in no set order.
Honourable Mention
Iron Mouse from VShojo
Puerto Rican
While not an actual anime character, she has put her country on the map with how much she contributes to the internet.
1. Celty Sturluson from Durarara
Irish
Irish folklore speaks of a headless horseman known as a Dullahan, in the world of Durarara, Celty is the motorcycle riding Dullahan working as a transporter in the shady underworlds of Durarara. Might feel a bit cheap using a folklore character but unlike the Fate series, Celty gives the Irish some positive representation.
2. Rosarita Cisneros from Black Lagoon
Colombian
Better known as Roberta, she's the most terrifying of Black Lagoon's trio of scary women, the world of Black Lagoon takes the world's most notorious crime syndicates and puts them in Thailand for an uneasy alliance. The cartels of South America aren't normally a threat as they usually get the blunt end of rage from Revy and Balalaika but then Roberta shows up and all you can do, is pray that she doesn't find you.
3. Victor from Medabots
Kenyan
Stoic, imposing and a little terrifying, Victor raised the stakes in the Medabots World Tournament, with justified goals, he's one of the earliest instances of a complex villain in the realm of toy anime. War Bandit as well is a beast.
4. Azmaria Hendric from Chrono Crusade
Portuguese
A miracle healer in the guise of a weak willed girl who tries her best to help out Rosette and Chrono, a little frustrating to watch but does pay off at the finale.
5. Aila Jyrkiainen from Gundam Build Fighters
Finnish
Gundam Build Fighters is what happens when Bandai tell you that there isn't enough money in model kits and tells you to make an anime out of it.
Aila passes for the Cyber Newtype character having been conditioned to use her abilities to gain the upper hand in battle with the personality to match. Speaking of which.
6. Allenby Beardsley from G Gundam
Swedish
G Gundam doesn't have the best history with portraying countries, Sweden is one of the only countries to avoid this stereotype with Allenby being everything Domon is in female form and has Gundam Sailor Moon.
7. Irina Jelavic from Assassination Classroom
Serbian
Ah yes Bitch Sensei, could've quite easily been Russian but they went for Serbian instead since the surname is Serbian in origin. She's one of many tasked to eliminate Koro-Sensei but really is terrible at the job.
8. Negi Springfield from Negima
Welsh
Poor Wales never seems to get any respect as England and Scotland normally take the honours but people forget that wizardry is founded in Welsh folklore, that's the mindset Ken Akamatsu went with Negi, going as far as visiting Wales himself for inspiration. Honourable mention for CDawgVA for being the internet's most prolific Welsh Youtuber.
9. Elza Forte from Aikatsu Stars
Monégasque
French wasn't high class enough for Elza Forte, so she's from Monaco instead, a principality known for glamour, wealth, gambling and motor racing, every bit of Elza's design is ultra Ojou-Sama right down to her presence and her dress, just look at that picture.
10. Amuro Ray from Gundam
Canadian
That's right, one of anime's most famous characters is a Canadian, the Newtype that stumbled onto a Gundam and became a legend. That's a massive character to have for a country often overlooked because of America.
I touched on this briefly with Mai, Hilary and many times with Chloe, the point being that alot of popular anime don't do their opposite gender justice. No order for this list.
1. 90% of Harem anime
The lead male is dumb, the lead female is oblivious.
Get the obvious one out the way first, a typical male is frequently beaten up, a loser, accidental pervert; while the typical female is completely oblivious to her situation and has no concept of red flags. Harem is kinda out of fashion thankfully, so it's not really a factor so much anymore.
2. Dragonballz
Bulma dominates the female cast too much.
For much of Dragonball history the very few female fighters we do get were limited to Android 18; Super and FighterZ bridged the gap but even now, Bulma still dominates as the female representative.
3. All Digimon seasons bar Tamers
Female digi-destined were kinda just making up numbers.
It started with Tai and Matt getting all the attention, then it was Davis despite the fact Kari and TK were meant to lead, Tamers did it right but then it reverted back to old habits with future seasons. While Kari provided actually plot relevance, Sora and Mimi didn't.
4. Medabots
They did Samantha dirty.
The sad thing about Medabots is that they had a really good female character in Samantha but they cut her relevance to the plot so much that she may as well have left the anime.
5. Beyblade
It took three seasons to get a decent female blader.
Mariah and Emily were strong bladers refused to be allowed any actual battling. The less said about Hilary the better. Took until G Revolution to finally fix this issue.
6. Pokemon Galar Season
Chloe had nothing to do.
They gave Goh a mission to catch Mew, Ash is the lead so enough said, Chloe had one Pokemon contest and advice from previous female leads, that's Chloe's entire contribution to the anime.
7. Non UC Gundam
It's taken about 30 years for a decent female pilot.
Nothing really against female casts of the non universal century Gundams as they all have strengths in their own way, but the only really decent female pilots we've had are Allenby of G Gundam and this seasons Witch from Mercury, that's pretty poor from a franchise with well balanced gender casting.
8. Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters
Female duelists get a bad rep.
I've covered this already with Mai, other than Ishizu, every female duelist is average, terrible or get through with hand holding, future seasons fixed this.
9. Naruto
Female ninjas are pretty terrible.
Much has been said about Sakura's history, Ino has a poor move set for combat, Hinata is in the wrong anime, Temari lost much of her role after marrying Shikamaru. The adults fair much better but they are not main characters. Oh yeah there's Tenten, what did she do again?
10. Pretty Cure
Despite promoting inclusiveness, there's still no official male Precure.
Hugto Precure broke the mold with the now legendary line "Boys can princesses to" this followed with the first ever male Precure and a season devoted to the message of everyone is Precure, young, old and any gender. That was Season 15, Season 20 is next year, and were still no closer to the elusive male Precure, current season discount Tuxedo Mask does not count.
Looking around the net to see if I can write anything Gundam related seeing as there are a ton on Project 1000, so instead of trying to watch over 100 episodes of classic era Gundam let's break out the facts and Easter Eggs you may have missed.
Amuro Ray is Canadian
It's difficult to pin point nationalities in a series where Earth is a 2nd thought or war torn. But it is revealed that Amuro Ray was born in British Columbia Canada, making his dub voice (Canadian actor Brad Swaile) the perfect choice.
Char Aznable is named after a real person
Char was named after World War II civilian and singer Charles Aznavour, who also played a pivotal role in establishing peaceful relations between France and Japan.
Familiar Titles
Gundam has a few quirky subtitles like Stardust Memory and Endless Waltz, actually those two are real titles in other media.
Stardust Memory is a Woody Allen Film from 1980.
Endless Waltz is a tragic Japanese Romance Novel.
Like Gundam's penchant for having controversial content, both these titles were considered controversial in their own media.
Io Fleming
Easy one to spot, Gundam Thunderbolt's protagonist is clearly a take on James Bond author Ian Fleming.
Relena Peacecraft was based on Audrey Hepburn
Right down to her mannerisms, default dress and looks but what hits it out of the park is her Queen of the World dress taken straight out of Hepburn's Roman Holiday.
Elpeo Ple's Unfortunate Name Origins
Elpeo Ple is short for Lemon People, a hentai magazine with a reputation for Lolicon content. Doesn't help that Elpeo looks 12.
Torinov Y. Minovsky Particles
Anyone who knows Gundam is familiar with Minovsky Particles, the accepted explanation for Gundam's unique universe. But when you break down the name of it's founder, you are basically reading Yoshiyuki Tomino if he were Russian.
Loran Cehack was Supposed to be Female
Tomino expressed interest in having a female protagonist for Turn A Gundam but Sunrise were against it, so Loran's design was deliberately made Gender Neutral and features him cross dressing out of spite.
Cancelled Gundam Works
Among Gundam's cancelled media includes the Gundam Seed movie which was cancelled when it's screen writer sadly passed away from Brain Cancer.
The Doozy Bots, an attempt to make Gundam a Saturday morning cartoon, it's worse than it sounds.
Gundam MSX, a rejected OVA set between the original series and Zeta Gundam.
And Polka Gundam, which was meant to be after Victory Gundam but due to it being a financial flop and the growing popularity of the returning super robot genre, G Gundam was made instead which saved Gundam but that's another story.
Gundam ZZ References to Akira
Judau Ashta's clothing is similar to Kaneda's helped by the fact that he to is part of a teenage gang, if that's too vague, Kaneda and Tetsuo cameo in the show as extras, this is taken from the manga of Akira as Gundam ZZ predates the film Akira.
