Were now on the final review of the A-Z review season, and what better way to end than to return to an anime close to my heart, it's Zoids!
The story takes place on a colonized planet named Zi, about a boy named Van who one day discovers a mysterious girl and a robot dinosaur known as an Organoid. After naming the girl Fiona and the Organoid Zeke, Van accidentally activates a bigger robot known as a Zoid, which resembles a Beast Wars Transformer in non human shape, unfortunately this draws him into an ongoing war between two factions the Helic Republic & the Guylos Empire; with help from a mercenary named Irvine and a transporter named Moonbay, the group try and resolve the war while discovering Fiona's past.
Zoids is the anime that bridges the gap created between Gundam and Transformers, it's not quite as angsty as Gundam gets but not nearly as cheesy as Transformers, so the middle ground not only suits it well it makes it look like the better show of the three. The mechs look fantastic and look absolute genius in design, each incorporating it's own unique weapons; the characters are a mixed bag, nothing against the main characters per say and Raven is one of anime's best anti heroes, but the main villains like Prozen and later Hiltz are quite bland and not very interesting, this extends to the supporting cast as well, as most of them can't hold too many scenes on their own, exception given to Karl Schubaltz who is awesome. As for the action, it's pretty epic and not afraid to hold back on the violence, a couple of really dramatic scenes including Fiona screaming after Van gets shot as well as any scene with the Death Stinger & Death Saurer in are guaranteed to get your blood pumping.
It has funny moments as well, Moonbay's transporter song comes to mind as well as some of her mad schemes for getting out of situations including using her Gustav as a wedding car.
There are some things that Zoids doesn't do well in, again it's supporting cast isn't the best at holding scenes together, some plots tend to have a few holes left in them and the CGI is a little shaky but overall it's a good series, decent dub with some memorable performances from Raven especially.
Final Verdict: It's fantastic to watch and fills a void left by Transformers and Gundam when they aren't around, bit shaky with it's support cast and plot holes are often ignored but it's still an amazing anime.
Free Trivia: The franchise actually started in 1982 as Mechabonica, an original model kit from that era goes for thousands.
Were coming to the last couple of reviews in this A-Z so lets kick off Y with Yatterman.
Yatterman started in the 70s as a follow up to the Time Bokan series produced by Tatsunoko which features a boy and a girl team fighting against an evil trio not much different to Team Rocket using robot animals.
Yatterman is about a boy and a girl team fighting against an evil trio not much different to Team Rocket using robot animals......
Yeah the shows don't change much but lets see why Yatterman went on the longest compared to the others. Well male lead Gan-Chan and female lead Ai-Chan are actually a couple, a very close couple despite Ai-Chan doing most of the work, which makes this formulaic series work better than your standard brother and sister or just friends team.
Yes I said formulaic and boy does it run like clockwork, a typical episode will involve an issue of some kind, usually the Dorombo Gang involved in a cheesy crime of some description using a mecha, now this is Team Rocket's spiritual ancestor, we have the lady in charge Doronjo, the brains Boyacky and the muscle Tonzura. With the evil plot taking place it's up to Gan & Ai to stop the Dorombo Gang, doing so with a robot dog dressed like a fire marshal called Yatter-Wan.
Gan & Ai also have some toys of they're own as Gan uses a Kendama while Ai uses a cattle prod as their weapons of choice. Once the battle gets going Yatter-Wan summons a load of mini robots to attack the Dorombo gang which usually wins the battle for Yatterman. Afterwards the Dorombo gang get chewed out by their boss and literally blast off again, which is actually where the term comes from and not Team Rocket.
I have to say, for a show so strict on formula, it is still able to remain entertaining, it helps that the mini-robots change every week and other animal robots come into the story as it goes along, but the chemistry is so strong between characters it rarely makes mistakes, my only real criticisms are a lack of localization for the west, the 70s original hasn't aged that well and the late 00s reboot should've come back sooner.
Final Verdict: Definitely worth the effort of finding a fansub for. I'd recommend trying both versions of the anime but I prefer the reboot to the original.
Next up is popular 90s Super Hero show, X-Men.
In the 90s, superhero shows managed a healthy existence without the demands of some big shot executives forcing it down our throats; Spiderman, Batman and X-Men are still highly regarded as the best cartoons of all time and not many people would argue that statement; and while we know why the former two were popular, X-Men was popular for a different reason. X-Men taught it's audience about grey morality, something that's not touched upon anymore in cartoons; it's more than just a showcase of mutant powers, it's how you deal with those powers and how regular people react to them and how to deal with constant hatred from said regular people.
Also it doesn't just offer you one solution it offers you two; you can decide to follow Professor X, attend a safe environment where you can learn to control your powers and learn how to reconnect with the world that's isolated you.
Or you can follow Magneto and turn against the human race, declaring yourself the next stage of evolution.
Being honest, both sides have good arguments, even though it's obvious that you should be supporting the X-Men, the grey ambiguity of the human race makes it hard to believe that Professor X can make such a peaceful world when they send giant sentinel robots to capture and execute you, equally I wouldn't put my faith in a leader who helped send in the sentinels to prove a point.
The characters are also rich in complexity with little room for mistake.
X-Men is not perfect though, it's humor turns up in strange places, Jubilee is not that interesting yet they focus on her too much at times and the Phoenix saga was the show's low point.
Other than those nitpicks, I loved the X-Men cartoon, the cartoons that followed never really captured the same formula the original did, which is a shame because there's so little to get wrong that it's hard to make this franchise bad.
Moving on with my next review, World God Only Knows.
The story is about a master gamer named Keima Katsuragi who can conquer any dating game earning the nickname "God of Conquest", with these skills he has earned infamy within the online realm which catches the attention of the Demon World who have allowed numerous loose souls to escape and have sent Spirit Hunter Elsie to retrieve them, knowing that the task involves conquering the hearts of women as the loose souls feed on negative emotions that create dating scenarios, the Demon World requests the help of Keima which Keima stupidly agrees thinking it's another gaming challenge only to end up getting roped into spirit hunting and of course with this being a contract from hell, if he doesn't do it then he'll be beheaded along with Elsie by the purple collar now round his neck. Using his knowledge of dating games as his only reference, Keima must now conquer the hearts of real women which he has done his best to avoid for so long.
This show is genius, the writing is some of the best I've ever seen because you are always keen to see the result of each conquest and with each girl being different in personality it never gets boring and even the filler episodes are fun. (except Episode 4 about the Glitched game)
If there are any issues and there are, I'd say there's a pacing issue, some girls get more episodes than others and any more than two episodes drags on too long, and although I've only seen the first two seasons, reading the synopsis for season three hasn't given me much promise as it gets goddesses involved.
Those are nit picks though and it doesn't distract from some of the best parts of the show, and if you're an avid gamer then the references at the season one finale will make you smile, especially if you're old enough to recognize all the games consoles Keima plays and why the joke about the oldest console not exploding due it still loading is so funny. Also I should bring up Elsie, who is simply the cutest anime character I've ever seen and heard, especially when she's so enthusiastic about random things such as Fire Trucks.
The dubbing is also top notch and deserves a mention but the music is weird; reading some of the lyrics in the opening themes, the singers seem to agree with this.
Final Verdict: This is a brilliant series and deserves a watch, make sure to keep your focus during the slower paced episodes and you should get through the whole series with no problems.
Now for something completely weird, this is Uta Kata.
Uta Kata is an unconventional Magical Girl Series by the same creator of Kiddy Grade.
It's about Ichika Tachibana and her experiences over a summer break; it starts in an old school building where Ichika discovers a mysterious girl named Manatsu Kuroki inside a mirror who offers Ichika mysterious magical gems on a magatama attached to her phone which can make her a magical girl and grants her access to Djinn, powerful elemental spirits, all she's asks is that Ichika records her experiences in what appears to be a judgement test. After agreeing, Manatsu comes out the mirror and transforms Ichika into a Magical Girl wearing a different costume each episode designed by a different artist, being the quirk of this show.
I'll be honest, it's a weird concept, it's one of those shows where it's difficult to support the leads as they woefully get drawn into psychological torture which isn't a pleasant watching experience not helped when Manatsu comes across as a real bitch in some scenes making Kyubey from Madoka Magica seem benevolent in comparison.
What were supposed to understand is the different ways in how power can be used in both the heroic ways and the villainous ways, but the way it comes across is somewhat mean-spirited which doesn't make for the best of climaxes when the big reveal comes in. So really the only reason you'd even watch this show is for the costumes as each artist adds their own unique costume each episode.
Here's the list of artists, what their known for and which episode and costume they did.
1. Megumi Kadonosono - Sun (Kiddy Grade & Uta Kata Character Designer)
2. Suezen - Moon (Yadamon Creator & Shining Force II Artist)
3. Hajime Ueda - Earth (FLCL Manga Artist)
4. Keinojou Mizutama - Water (Brigadoon Character Artist)
5. Kaishaku - Fire (Steel Angel Kurumi Manga Group)
6. Hidefumi Kimura - Heaven (Design & Screenplay Kiddy Grade & Uta Kata)
7. Keiko - Wind (Figurine Designer)
8. Hajime Watanabe - Flowers (Character Designer Kodocha)
9. Mine Yoshizaki - Thunder (Manga Artist Sgt. Frog)
10. Koshi Rikdo - Darkness (Manga Artist Excel Saga)
11. Ken Akamatsu - Sea (Manga Artist Love Hina & Negima)
12. Keiji Gotoh - Mirror (Director & Artist Kiddy Grade & Uta Kata)
Quite a list there, would loved to have seen a few more of them but they are nice Magical Girl costumes and functions as the show's greatest strength and high production values only make it all the more appealing.
Final Verdict: It's an attractive looking series and is good inspiration for upcoming artists but the story is too complicated and the characters aren't worth supporting and just make you hate them.
