Now we come to an anime that's not afraid to bare all for it's viewers, it's time for High School DxD.
The story begins at a girls school turns co-education for unknown reasons but it's not important. We focus on the life of Issei Hyodo, a typical high school pervert but as it usually is with these ecchi harem type anime, he's apparently got a good heart.
Luck seems to hit him early on when he ends up on a date with a girl but ends up being killed by said girl as she reveals herself to be a fallen angel. Issei gets revived by the lovely red haired devil Rias but in exchange he becomes a devil as well, although this isn't a bad thing as he also finds out he has a cool power he never knew he had and the fallen angels want it.
After a few battles, Issei joins the Gremory household as a pawn alongside other devils that assist Lady Rias, all of which have nicknames of chess pieces as it follows a strong chess motif, this also includes a former nun named Asia Argento who joins after the first half of season one. In the second half of season one Issei beats down a noble devil to reclaim Rias from an arranged marriage; there are two more seasons after this.
Now when this anime began, I was skeptical because it was going to be another one of those shows like Akikan where you have an obvious pervert with a good heart but the lead female is the ultimate tsundere but this time we don't get that from Rias and thank god for it, otherwise this show would suck.
Saying that it does take a while to get going but once you get stuck in, you're left wanting more by the time Season one ends.
Yes it plays a lot of shameless ecchi moments, and never shys away from showing full frontal nudity, well the DxD does refer to breast size after all; but as a bonus we get decent action, mostly well written characters and a story that rarely resorts to horrid cliches. The music is incredible and the dubbing is really well done and we even get a few comedy references from other anime. My only question is, can it manage to avoid the dreaded curse of Season 2 downfall? Well we'll find out at a later date.
Final Verdict: While looking like a typical show of it's genre, High School DxD manages to surprise it's doubters by focusing on the action and plot with the bonus of ecchi. This is one ecchi where you can feel proud to say "I watch it for the plot"
Yesterday we lost a comedy legend, the great and charismatic Robin Williams; and today's Cartoon Vault review looks at one of the animated features he starred in, Ferngully The Last Rainforest.
In a Rainforest in Australia, fairies have lived for centuries away from the world of humans and it is believed that humans are extinct thanks to a demonic being named Hexxus, that is until Crysta out of curiosity discovers that humans could in fact still be around as she sees in a distance black smoke coming from Mt Warning. Along with Batty, a deranged fruit bat who has escaped a science lab, they go and investigate the black smoke to find some humans cutting down the Rainforest; through a sudden reaction to a falling tree, Crysta shrinks a human male named Zak and along with Batty go on a crazy adventure which involves escaping the local wildlife, teaching the fairies human culture such as cheesy 90s music and going through the compulsory love scene between the lead characters with Batty providing the comic relief perfectly executed by Robin Williams.
Unfortunately a tree Zak accidentally sprayed earlier is in fact the tree Hexxus is sealed in, which is promptly cut down, releasing the rather flamboyant smog monster Hexxus, voiced by Tim Curry. By using the bulldozer to his advantage, Hexxus lays waste to the Rainforest but the fairy folk not willing to see their home destroyed, combine powers left by the elder fairy as well as having Zak stop the machine in order to end Hexxus' rampage. But before he can be defeated for good, Hexxus leaves us a sinister piece of Nightmare fuel as he transforms into a skeleton with a body of oil but when he consumes Crysta he's then consumed by a new sacred tree which finally puts an end to Hexxus.
Crysta comes out alive, resizes Zak and takes her place as the new leader of the fairies and so ends Ferngully.
Now this film is obviously a "Save the Rainforest" kinda film, during a time where supporting such a campaign was fashionable but it becomes a bit skewed when the fairies make growing new trees look easy, even in the face of a monster like Hexxus who looks like the personification of pollution that Captain Planet would be proud to fight. The plot struggles to get the message across and the experiences in the first half of the movie are confusing and add nothing to the story, in fact this film would be a write off if not for Robin Williams' performance as Batty to give us some brilliant comedy moments.
Robin Williams can create some bizarre characters whether it be the Scottish cross dressing nanny Mrs Doubtfire or the Blue Genie of Aladdin, if you removed these characters from the equation of their respective films then I doubt any of these films would see success and Ferngully is no exception.
"Cause you're only given a little spark of madness, and if you lose that, you're nothing" - Robin Williams 1951-2014 RIP
Partly inspired by one of the entries, these are the characters who can wear absolutely anything, these characters never stick to one outfit for very long, they always change clothing frequently and have plenty to choose from, so without further delay lets begin.
Honorable Mentions
Elizabeth Midford from Black Butler
Always appears in a different dress each time she appears, if it weren't for restrictions in the time period she'd wear every type of dress going.
Isaac & Miria from Baccano
They wear a different costume on every heist but the series is too short compared to the other entries who come from longer series.
Any Idol or Precure Anime
Because naming them all would not make this list very interesting.
10. Toru Kouno, Yuujirou Shihodani and Mikoto Yutaka from Princess Princess
Our first entries are the only male entries on this list, saying that these pretty boys can pull off absolutely anything whether it be male or female clothing, a testament to the art design this anime has.
9. Naru Narusegawa from Love Hina
As the artist's favorite, Naru gets the pick of pretty much every costume going including anime only, manga covers and promotional art exclusives. It helps that Ken Akamatsu is a cosplay otaku and that his wife is the inspiration for Naru.
8. Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon
While all the Sailor Scouts go through a decent wardrobe of clothes, Usagi gets bonuses for using disguises and battle costume upgrades, heck she even pulls off a very convincing male in the manga.
7. Lum from Urusei Yatsura
The only entry on this list to have more costumes in promotional art than her actual anime, it's something which Rumiko Takahashi did alot of which would transfer into Ranma 1/2, in fact for a long time Lum was the face of anime itself.
6. Honey Kisaragi from Cutey Honey
Honey is a master of disguise and will show case any costume when the situation calls for it, in fact her trademark catchphrase often involves her showcasing her disguises before becoming Cutey Honey.
5. Yuri from Dirty Pair Franchise
Yuri is an interesting case because a good majority of her wardrobe appears in one episode of the Flash series if only to spoof how many outfits she's had over all series in the franchise even those outside of Japan with the Adam Warren comics.
4. Rebecca Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash
Appears in a different outfit every episode and some of her DVD cover costumes are spoofs of other anime characters like Gendou Ikari or cultural icons like Bruce Lee and the Terminator.
3. Sakura Kinomoto from Card Captor Sakura
This is the only entry to actually have her own personal fashion designer in Tomoyo, not by choice and Tomoyo is a little too eager to dress up Sakura for all her battles. Saying that, this is the most diverse set of Magical Girl costumes ever assembled in one show.
2. Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail
She has an armor for every occasion and battle, she even uses her magic to change into regular clothes, she even has special outfits she only gets out when the situation calls for it such as her legendary bikini and her wedding dress. I hate this word but Erza is a real fashionista.
1. Fujiko Mine from Lupin III
This women has appeared in disguises so often that one wonders what she really looks like normally, this even became the subject of her own TV Series spinoff. While previous entries have multiple clothing and one trademark outfit, Fujiko Mine just wears everything and anything, even her trademark catsuits are diverse.
Having watched this movie recently, I think a review is in order.
Fairy Tail is one of my favorite anime series about the exploits of the Wizards Guild bearing the same name but traditionally anime movies don't quite live up to the same standard as the tv series, so here's how this movie went.
Before the movie even starts, it's worth looking over the first morning short beforehand where the title character Phoenix Priestess Eclair accidentally brings to life a stuffed toy made like a bird called Momon whom she doesn't like, it shows a normal day where Eclair works as a fortune teller but after an altercation where she loses the Phoenix Stone she has to shelter away from attacking wolves, the next morning Momon is beat up and the stone has returned safe and sound and they become friends, so now we can begin the film proper.
The movie starts off in great fashion as we see Eclair run away from an assault of people who want her dead, after this rather silent scene we see Team Natsu fail to capture a bandit but since Eclair is the main focus she inevitably ends up meeting up with Lucy who takes her back to the Fairy Tail Guild.
Eclair who is traveling to a dangerous region of the world is guarded by the Fairy Tail Guild despite her hatred of magic but with this being the Fairy Tail guild, Team Natsu has no problem helping.
So after a day of shopping including Gray's streaking, Natsu pigging out on food and Erza buying a wedding dress (don't ask her why) the plot finally gets going when a mercenary attacks Lucy & Eclair leading to a hilarious scene where Lucy ends up butt naked. A quick trip to see Eclair's father later and we return to the guild hall only for it to be demolished by the Carbuncle mercenaries who are working for a stuck up King. They succeed in capturing the Phoenix Stone as well as Eclair and promptly fit it together to summon a great evil monster which destroys everything insight which Natsu and co defeat as well as the Carbuncle Mercenaries and so ends the film. (Non Spoiler Version)
For a film it runs quite well, characters don't feel weakened to accommodate an obvious filler story and many of the best moments come from the comedy and the drama. The fight scenes have poor pacing as we don't stay long enough in some battles to really grasp what's going on, particularly the fight between Natsu and Dist seemed very lacking compared to Gray and Erza's fights and this was meant to be the main villain vs the main character.
Dubbing is top notch as always and I'm happy to see Jessica Calvello return to voice acting especially after almost destroying her vocal cords doing Excel Excel. Her voice work as Eclair was one of her best performances to date.
So that's the Fairy Tail movie, maybe I'll review the main series at some point.
Final Verdict: It's definitely worth a watch if you enjoy a decent story but if you've come for action, there's not really enough to satisfy.
This has been on my to do list for a while but after careful consideration I have now picked my top ten guilty pleasure anime.
Dishonorable Mentions
Digimon, Pokemon & Sailor Moon
They all used to be guilty pleasures but are now appreciated classics, Sailor Moon as of it's new series has gone all contemporary, while the other two still run on decent money despite being over 15 years old.
10. Cutey Honey
Better known as the mother of all transformation sequences, Cutey Honey is on here for it's shameless attempts at adult fanservice, it's cheesy dialogue and sentai background, yet it still looks better than most Magical Girl shows in the last ten years.
9. Ultimate Girls & Hyperdoll
Sticking with sentai heritage, Ultimate Girls was an attempt to spoof the Ultraman series and make fun of ecchi shows in general, it never misses a moment to constantly rip off the girls clothes and make them fight the most dodgy looking monsters. Hyperdoll is an older series but follows a similar concept of skimpy clothes and crappy monsters. However both have amazingly catchy theme songs and the whole premise is so laughable that you can't help but enjoy it.
8. Debutante Detective Corps
Anyone who has followed me from day one knows that this show was the first series I ever reviewed, a minor OVA series about five stupidly rich girls forming a detective group to try and stop bad guys wanting to kidnap them and demand their money. It's laughable the amount of effort that went into this OVA and stands the test of time as a heckle worthy anime for the lazy afternoons.
7. Fighting Video Game Anime
Fighting Games have terrible stories and not one of them has ever managed to be good in anime form despite having enough of a diverse cast to allow it to be good. Anime like Powerstone, Virtua Fighter, Fatal Fury, Street Fighter II, Tekken, Variable Geo and Darkstalkers all have to share this position on this list, but say what you like about it, it's still very entertaining to watch these failures.
6. Angelic Layer
It's interesting to see CLAMP try a shonen series but ultimately still feels like a shojo, nevertheless the fighting dollies of Angelic Layer is still a million times better than some of the rubbish CLAMP have dug up over the years.
5. Those Who Hunt Elves
Anyone using the tagline, "Stripping Elves for Fun & Profit" will get serious looks of confusion from so many people, made even more weirder when the characters are a school girl, a martial artist, a Hollywood actress and a T74 Tank that later gets possessed by a cat spirit, all of whom are led by an elf woman who ends up turning into a dog. Despite all that it's wonderfully good fun to watch.
4. Love Hina
It's become a popular bashing subject between anime fans and I can see why but read much closely it still manages to be a decent love story, this is made more clear in the Manga whereas the anime feels cheap in comparison and lets face it, everyone always cheers when watching Naru get punched.
3. Rio Rainbow Gate
This show was written to be completely bashed by anime fans but it's attempts at being serious when Rio herself does her best by using the heart of the cards setup makes this such an enjoyment to watch if only to see how absurd the premise can get, the fact that this was made by Tecmo of Dead or Alive fame is plain to see as its never shy with it's fanservice.
2. Wedding Peach
The term "Sailor Moon ripoff" was common place in the 90s when many Magical Girl shows wanted to claim some of it's popularity, the most high profile being Wedding Peach, about a group of three girls who transform into their Wedding Gowns before going into their mini-skirts of power during a fight scene. It's a cheesy ripoff, the dub is one of the worst in anime history and feels like something Precure would come up with (which surprisingly they haven't). Saying that, it had a decent soundtrack, it ran at a higher quality than Sailor Moon and you just can't help but appreciate the ambitious attempt this anime tried to accomplish that it so nearly became a worthy rival.
1. Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
Oh god, oh god, oh god. Yes another terrible magical girl show but it's so laughably stupid that it's become a hidden cult classic, it's also the only anime that manages to use it's whole color palette for both it's villains and mermaids and finally we have the songs. Even shows about Magical Pop Idols such as Aikatsu and the Pretty Rhythm franchise could never compete with Mermaid Melody's cheesy pop, for a long time it served the internet's meme community until the next bad anime took over.
