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!
This week I had to replace my overworked 8 year old tv with my first smart TV, over in the UK, we are offered a number of channels for free, the contents of said channels especially the animation section are unusual and I would like to share them with you.
He-Man and She-Ra
Perhaps most jarring are 24 hour streams of He-Man and She-Ra, both the original 80s series, no remakes; I've not watched either for decades and it's just as corny now as it was back then, one note on She-Ra and something I heavily criticised the remake for is the design.
Apart from She-Ra's facial expressions rarely changing, her original design is beautiful, then the remake comes along and it is hideous, if not for the remake's story being brilliant, She-Ra's remake would be terrible. He-Man's remakes will need their own entry to describe that disaster.
Voltron
At least Voltron has all three series on hand, classic, CG and modern remake, I'll definitely have to invest some time as this series needs commitment.
Yu-Gi-Oh and Beyblade
So far the only dedicated anime channel has two anime, all seasons of Yu-Gi-Oh and I assume all series of Beyblade but only G-Revolution has played, a rewatch of season 1 Yu-Gi-Oh was rough, particularly as I'm stuck with 4Kids dubbing while Beyblade is playing it's best season but it is the season with Daichi who I despise.
Mr Bean
A slight look at some British animation, Mr Bean's cartoon is based on the live action comedy of the same name, it lacks the comedy timing that only a live action could bring and there is more dialogue than necessary for what is a mostly silent protagonist.
Dennis the Menace
No this isn't the blonde boy troublemaker who is the bane of Mr Wilson's existence, but a boy in a red and black jersey and shorts with spikey black hair and a spikey black haired dog to match, no one knows who came first as both debuted in comics the same year.
Apart from UK Dennis having a much more dodgy history, the character is largely unchanged since his inception, a testament to his staying power as the Beano UK comic is last UK comic book still in publication.
Alvin and the Chipmunks
The CG remake takes much from the crazy popular 90s version making it one of the most faithful modern remakes of all time but modern music really doesn't do this remake justice however.
Rekkit Rabbit
The latest show from Totally Spies creator Marathon, features everything you expect from one of their shows, unintentional fetish fuel. The actual cartoon is about a magicians rabbit who causes mischief for his new owner after being saved from a magician, throw in actual magic and you have plenty of fun.
Miraculous Ladybug and Cat Noir
One show I'm glad gets played frequently is France's best cartoon since Code Lyoko and Oban Star Racers. Miraculous has lore that surpasses most modern anime, even on the level of it's shojo counterparts, it does better than them. A full review coming soon.
That's a number of highlights from the strange world of British TV, it's free at least.
If you do have any hot takes, I'll be happy to take a look at them.
"The idea of putting such a level of detail on the eyes of the characters is the only very real reason why anime is so good at being anime"
It's true that the eyes are a major part of it but that's also true with all animation and it's not a unique trait that anime has, expressions and body language also goes a long way in establishing a good first impression.
"Doraemon, Sazae-San and Shin Chan will always be a part of our lives even when we turn 100 years old"
Huh, didn't know Shin Chan was still going.
Real talk, the staying power of those three anime is no different to Americans keeping around the Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo and Mickey Mouse, no doubt there's an audience that still exists for them, case in point, Crayon Shin Chan's autor has been dead for 14 years now and his work still lives on, so it really won't surprise me if they are still around long after I go.
"Bleach is the first anime to treat black people with any decency"
One of Bleach's stronger qualities is having a very well diverse cast, it's certainly welcome but the statement itself assumes that Anime has this issue to begin with, Japan doesn't have the West's history of racism but it's hardly innocent in how it depicts foreigners, in most cases, it's pure ignorance or just like poking fun at Americans. When anime does depict a black character even before Bleach aired, it's not the same as what Warner Bros did back in the 1940s.
"Yu-Gi-Oh is the best in the shonen genre and has some of the best monster/creature designs in anime and has the #1 waifu in all of anime Mai Valentine"
The person who wrote this one has clearly never seen another anime, while it did run in Shonen Jump it was never setup for the kind of popularity it was going to get nor was it expected to change the world of card games, it's narrative was directed by the product, so it's more a toy anime than a true shonen.
The monster designs are great but so are Pokemon and Digimon's efforts.
Mai Valentine is a trash waifu, her personality is terrible and she's not even a good duelist.
"The three episode rule is kinda stupid since shows can get better"
All depends which anime you apply it to, I've been known to stop anime after 1 episode in the past but I also realise the same wouldn't apply to all anime, but it's got me thinking, I'll take ten popular anime and see if the three episode formula works on them. That'll be my next post.
Welcome back to the show that looks at some Hot Takes and see where I stand on them.
"Bleach gets too much hate"
This take is a bit dated as Bleach was out of the spotlight for quite some time, in fact the idea that we have anime fans now who haven't seen the first Bleach anime is plausible while old fans don't really care anymore; back in Bleach's prime it was a narrative mess and the hate was mostly justified but it wasn't as overhated as Naruto was.
"I'm getting tired of 12 episode slice of life anime"
I'm probably more sick of the 12 episode seasonal format rather than any genre specifically, there are way too many mediocre anime that out stay their welcome by episode 6 but it's not usually the Slice of Life ones that fail.
"The anime industry overuses fan service"
Funny how most people when they bring this up never mention Free when it's more fan service than quite a high number of tamer shows.
Real talk, fan service shows have been more clever in recent years in how they flaunt the goods, normally using the one gender rule to avoid any pitfalls of being sexist, Keijo and Free popularised that, it's not gone completely and the 00s were particularly bad for fan service, it really isn't as big as it used to be, in fact the audience for it are all Gacha gamers now.
"The longer the title the more likely the anime is going to be bad"
I don't think the length of the title has anything to do with quality, but having titles that literally tell you the plot of the show is off putting, so I can see the grievance in that.
"The anime industry wouldn't be where it is today without 4Kids Entertainment"
Bull shit! 4Kids were fortunate as they were the ones who had licensed Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh for the States but they mishandled both properties and were left bankrupt as a result. The western side owes more to Akira for taking a chance on the States and succeeding followed by ADVFilms and Central Park Media taking a risk on other early anime. If we include Japan, Osamu Tezuka, Go Nagai, Yoshiyuki Tomino and Monkey Punch were the true Elite Four of anime that made modern anime what it is.
Our next segment covers the world of trading cards.
It All Started with a Ban
The history of trading cards began in the mid 16th Century in Japan by Portuguese traders later being adopted as Hanafuda but the Tokugawa Shogunate quickly banned all foreign influences including the cards themselves creating an underground gambling ring, this didn't lift until the 19th Century when a certain company named Nintendo was allowed to produce and sell them as recreational card games.
Another Win For Pokemon
It wasn't hard to see this coming, after already dominating the handhelds it would then dominate the trading card scene, memories of that elusive Charizard still fill the minds of many of my age group and even now it remains a fixture in tournaments. I no longer own anymore Pokemon cards having since sold them.
Saving the World With a Children's Card Game
Yu-Gi-Oh started as a manga featuring a game obsessed teen with impossible hair possessed by the spirit of an ancient Egyptian gambler turning typical games into games of death, it got pretty dark but one of the many games played was Duel Monsters which when modded to real world rules became an instant hit so Duel Monsters became the main game in Yu-Gi-Oh. It's checkered history under Konami has led to one or two court cases with Upper Deck and 4Kids for better or worst as in the latter case 4Kids went bankrupt. These days the game is doing much better than the anime, the anime seems to experiment with different ways including a school, on motorcycles, in space, whatever Arc-V and Vrains was meant to be. Either way expect more impossible hair. I did own a few decks and again they were sold.
The Not So Subtle Ripoff
Did anyone really care for Duel Masters? From what I can gather it sounds more like a poor mans Magic the Gathering than Yu-Gi-Oh but it really didn't help the franchise that the lead was a spikey haired kid.
The Quite Decent Ripoff
Cardfight Vanguard kind of slotted into some of the void left by Yu-Gi-Oh when the Yu-Gi-Oh anime kinda lost it's luster, in it's place a fresh new card game that manages a decent following and a not too bad anime.
Every Anime Wants a Card Game now
After a while, Anime is now mainstream so how to go forward with cards? Enter Weiß Schwarz.
This card game has you covered on every anime with significant popularity, in fact it's the only reason some of the anime are even popular, looking at you Love Live. It's biggest selling feature is the gorgeous art straight from the anime itself. It's a good seller among collectors.
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