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!
To begin our mystery box series, we start with a guide to Universal Law in anime.
What is Universal Law?
Universal Law is the setting, plot and environment of any given anime, the so called laws are established to keep the story on the right path.
To use Death Note as an example, the setting uses real world physics, the supernatural element are the shinigami and the Death Note itself and no character has immunity to death as the rules of the Death Note are written in a way to avoid breaking the Universal Laws of the story.
How Do You Break Universal Law?
Universal Law is a very fragile tight rope to walk and can easily broken when introducing any story that involves character death or hard to explain stories like time travel or anything that changes fate; power of love and friendship is notorious for breaking this.
Case Study: A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepherd
As an immediate example lets look at this anime.
Based on a visual novel, the plot revolves around a library that sees it's so called Shepherds capable of changing fate but when it comes to a character predetermined to die, they are saved by essentially revealing the secret of the Shepherds meaning that said character is banished and has their memory erased, however the whole thing gets retconned to force a happy ending.
Case Study: Plastic Memories
This is also the same issue with tragic endings, it's often implied that Isla is the Giftia in the epilogue scene when she should've been deactivated, I'll cover this more with my article on Isla.
Decisions That Weren't Meant to Be
Negima has more than a few problems with it's story, everything from constantly making Negi an adult/teen just so he can fight at full strength, to an anime adaption with the same retconned predetermined death that plagues an already bad adaptation. Don't get me started on the fact that Negi marries Chisame Hasegawa
Isn't This Just Jumping the Shark
Jumping the Shark, Nuking the Fridge, yes I suppose it does follow the same concept, although this plagues longer running shows such as Shonen Jump titles, four examples include.
One Piece: Characters that should be dead but not.
Bleach: Fullbring is bull shit.
Naruto: Itachi's convoluted plan as well as Akatsuki's more bull shit Jutsus.
Hunter x Hunter: Gon's utterly stupid rage transformation.
Power of love and friendship is universally hated for pulling a victory out of nothing when it's obvious that a character is about to lose.
Plot armour is another name for it.
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.
Not that long ago, I listed some characters that despite their popularity aren't actually that great so I found more.
1. Tatsumaki from One Punch Man
I could go through alot of characters whose arrogance gets punched into the ground by Saitama but I get the sense that even if Saitama ever did defeat Tatsumaki, she'd still be a bitch. Her attitude just grinds on me.
2. Davis from Digimon 02
A much weaker character than Tai and much stupider as well, he had his hand held far too much during that season and it was actually TK who punched out the Digimon Emperor and really should've been the leader.
3. Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo
The only thing the writers can get consistently right is that she's a space pirate, her powers are inconsistent, her back story is convoluted and there are some moments of no personal space where she comes off as clingy or obnoxious.
4. Onodera Kosaki from Nisekoi
Considering how much better Chitoge's personality is compared to other tsunderes in the same position, Onodera comes off as not really a rival at all, her insecurities get old and is quickly at the back of the queue the more the harem grows. Her own best friend has a better chance.
5. Orihime Inoue from Bleach
Considering how much Bleach changed the landscape of Shonen action series, seeing a damsel in distress is a huge let down, Orihime's powers are quickly forgotten as well so she can set up for the role of Damsel. I'd put Chad here as well, but I said popular characters.
6. Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion
The more you investigate this girl, the more you didn't want to find out. I'm also glad the emotionless doll waifu died out when Haruhi Suzumiya failed to replicate it with Nagato Yuki. I find nothing about Rei Ayanami attractive, endearing or even that interesting.
7. Hotaru Tomoe from Sailor Moon
*100s of Guns being loaded and pointed at me* put the guns down. Sailor Saturn's biggest problem is the fact that the writing for her character makes her unusable. Being the senshi that represents death, she only arrives if the universe is really screwed, her role is effectively reduced to last resort. I'm not including Mistress 9 because I judge her as a different character.
8. Ayaka Yukihiro from Negima
She was billed as Asuna's true friend despite the squabbling they always do but was relegated from the story for quite a long time and in the end, she never really got to do anything but be a little too obsessed with Negi.
9. Walter C. Dornez from Hellsing
I would've thought someone as bad ass as Walter wouldn't resort to such a boring tedious betrayal just for the sake of killing Alucard but he does, it was a let down and it only gets worst from there.
10. Red Haired Shanks from One Piece
Shanks' mere presence is enough to stop a war, stand up to other pirates at his level and ultimately garner so much respect that even the marines agree to his demands. Here's the thing though, he hasn't done anything but show up occasionally, we only have his reputation to go on and after so many years, One Piece owes us for our patience.
After reviewing Shaman King, I was left wondering why it didn't seem to catch on despite modest popularity and it made me realise there are quite a few titles like that.
Shaman King
To bring up what's already been said quickly, Shaman King slotted in nicely among Shonen Jump's Golden Era, it filled the void left by Yu Yu Hakusho and Bleach was still finding it's feet.
What Happened?
Bleach found it's footing way quicker than expected making other Shonen Jump titles stand up and take notes but not one to let his series become generic, not helped by a poor end to the anime, Hiroyuki Takei pulled the plug and has only recently finished the ending and epilogue.
Medabots
A large staple of FoxKids' run of anime following Digimon gave it a decent amount of coverage and is one of the more fondly remembered dubs of it's day.
What Happened?
It's 2nd season bombed, anything after the Medabots tournament arc had out lived it's lifespan and what new they could've brought in failed to capture the imagination.
Tokyo Mew Mew
A very colourful magical girl show that at the time filled a massive void left by Sailor Moon with a very creative art style and a unique concept and likely inspiration for Precure.
What Happened?
4kids that's what; the hack job from 4kids killed Magical Girl anime in the west which it still hasn't recovered from.
Inazuma 11
Level-5's Soccer epic combined everything you ever wanted in a sports anime with some of the most spectacular choreography you'll ever witness.
What Happened?
It's lack of appeal to America mostly, also widely ignored in the UK then relegated to the old 3DS anime channel before being cancelled.
Negima
Ken Akamatsu's magnum opus, a spectacular series of wizards and fanservice with enough action to give Harry Potter a run for it's money.
What Happened?
Poor anime, a plot that got so stuck in it's own lore it forgot how to story and faded out when the Harry Potter film series ended.
Modern Gundam
Name any series post Gundam Wing and you got some of the best mecha anime at your finger tips
What Happened?
Gundam never had the same success as Wing or G Gundam in the west, this can mostly be down to being released at the wrong time or ignoring series that had no impact to begin with like X and Age.
Slayers
Best fantasy anime of all time and the greatest soundtrack of all time.
What Happened?
As much of a travesty this is, alot of Slayers short comings came from an era saturated by alot of fantasy anime, a battle it did win but got lost among other titles due to sci fi anime doing much better in the west.
Mermaid Melody
Looked at one point to be the one to succeed Tokyo Mew Mew and give the west another crack following modest sales in Europe.
What Happened?
This one still has me puzzled, what makes it even more so is the fact that the dub is finished and unreleased.
Beyblade
Competed strongly with it's rivals in the toy anime category and often got the better of it's rivals when most of them had already peaked.
What Happened?
After the original cast of Beyblade ended a strong three series run it was put to sleep before making a poor comeback with bland characters and a franchise that by then was already done.
Sonic X
Even at it's absolute worst form of games, Sonic X kept Sonic relevant in the early 2000s.
What Happened?
I've yet to meet someone who was really into Sonic X when it came out talk about it today without being on their back foot.
With the internet these days, it's much easier to pick out who succeeds and who doesn't but this topic may yet be revisted.
End
