Hi I'm Dranzerstorm
You may remember me as a regular contestant on the caption battle contest.
Welcome to Retro Retrospective, my world dedicated to the old guard of the Otaku world; expect some reviews of the old & obscure, and in-depth geeky knowledge with the occasional top ten and I now have a logo.
Little info about me
Well I'm British and I'm in to all things animated and nostalgia.
I've grown up with every cartoon going and have watched hundreds of anime.
Oh and to answer a question I was asked once, no I don't wear glasses in real life, I would wear Loke's sunglasses though.
I've recently had a surge of good ideas come through my mind so my entries will start coming in thick and fast for a few days so to kick off the frenzy I will start with Top 10 Author Avatars.
An author avatar is where a certain character within the story represents the author writing it, whether it be the main character or a mascot, so let us begin.
10. Akira Toriyama Robot from Dr Slump & Dragonball
In his early works Akira Toriyama recreated himself as a small robot wearing a gas mask, often with a clockwork key and an array of clothing.
9. Koshi Rikdo from Excel Saga
Rikdo who appears alongside a later entry on this list would kick start each episode of Excel Saga by agreeing to let his characters indulge in a particular genre of anime for gags, with hilarious results.
8. Eichiro "Odacchi" Oda from One Piece
During a soccer special short before one of the films, Eichiro Oda re-imagines himself as a soccer player to take a shot for the villain allstars only for it to be saved by Coby. It covers Oda's childhood passion for soccer in which his nickname was Odacchi.
7. Naoko Takeuchi from Sailor Moon
Naoko named Usagi's immediate family after her own and Usagi herself is rumored to be based on her.
6. Tatsuhiko Tokimoto from Welcome to the NHK
The show is such a grim reminder of his past life that it drives him insane whenever he thinks about it.
5. Jin Kobayashi from School Rumble
Harima Kenji is Jin Kobayashi, going to the point that Harima wants to become a Manga artist.
4. Ken Akamatsu from Love Hina
Keitaro Urashima is Ken Akamatsu, down to the nearest facial features as well, even his wife is based on Naru & Mutsumi, making Love Hina an exaggerated version of Akamatsu's own love life.
3. Mokona from CLAMP works
You see the weird rabbit thing and you think Mokona who is a member of the CLAMP team who frequently appears in many of CLAMPS stories.
2. Nabeshin from Any Work he's involved in
A rare case of a Director rather than the actual creator of the manga to insert himself into his work. As a master of gag anime, Nabeshin is usually a welcome sight in the likes of Excel Saga, Nerima Daikon Brothers & Nurse Witch Komugi to name a few. He even cosplays himself.
1. Hideaki Anno from Neon Genesis Evangelion
Shinji Ikari is Hideaki Anno or rather his personified depression. Every episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion is a different stage of Anno's depression culminating in a complete breakdown by the movies which was during a time when Gainax were facing financial difficulty; the reboot movies of the last few years show that Anno is feeling much better now, but what a series to make while depressed, I'd hate to see the origins of Madoka Magica.
One last note: Big shout out to Nimbusoak for the awesome fanart picture, as a reward you can pick the next anime to be reviewed on Retro Retrospect.
I have now earned myself the title of "Master of Lists" so I shall present to you another top ten list going into more obscure territory with Top 10 Flawed Species. Rules this time cannot include human evolutions such as Newtypes or clones or mutant creations; human shape aliens are allowed. Lets begin.
10. Sea Kings from One Piece
They look impressive and show off the potential of Eichiro Oda's creative mind but their role in the series are often background art or as punching bags for the pirates.
9. Living Weapons from Soul Eater & Elemental Gelade
One lot act as a Deathscythe for humans the other act as special jewel weapons for humans but both sets are only as powerful as it's wielder, however if said weapon remains unused for so long you get this.
Yeah you wouldn't want Excalibur.
8. All Sea Life from Mermaid Melody Pichi pfft pfft *Gargles water* Pichi Pitch
So how do these Mermaids fight? They sing pop songs. How do enemy Mercreatures fight? They sing pop songs. The main mascot companion character is a penguin in a sailor suit, I wouldn't want any of these mermaids defending my seas from danger.
7. Elves from Those Who Hunt Elves
In an attempt to defeat an evil being, Celsia accidentally summons three humans and a tank into the Elf World and in an attempt to send them back, screws up the spell and it ends up tattooed to sexy elf women but then it's revealed that the original spell is merging the Elf World & Human World. So through constant screwing up you've doomed our world as opposed to your own world. *Claps* Well done.
6. Echidnas from Sonic X
Seeing as Sonic X follows the Sonic Adventure plot line it makes sense to put Echidnas on this list. In a silly attempt to seize power from the Emeralds, the Echidnas get destroyed by the water monster Chaos, after a few other incidents, Knuckles ends up the last Echidna and ends up playing guard duty to the Master Emerald. Other versions make things more clear but in Anime land we've only got this to work with.
5. Porvoras from King of Bandits Jing
A cute little fuzzy creature that looks like it would sell lots of toys ends up exploding in spectacular fashion when aggravated or hurt. Makes it all the more tragic when you see them get used as dynamite.
4. Digimon from Digimon
I did some research on this and found that the Digital World can't seem to function without human help. The three main Digimon types are Data, Vaccine & Virus but whoever made the Digital World was as lazy as Microsoft were when releasing Windows Vista. It's biggest flaw is the fact that the Viruses always take control of the World and needs humans to destroy them much like we do with Anti-Virus software....I totally just exposed the whole plot of Digimon.
3. Saiyans from Dragonballz
The great warrior race are often judged as primitive and if you look at their origins you'd be right. Strangely enough, if not for Goku having trained on Earth as a Martial Artist, Vegeta would never have gotten to Super Saiyan level, as the main factors of a Saiyan getting stronger are Moonlight and being beaten to death but mostly being beaten to death. It never occurred to them that you can train to get stronger.
2. Vanillite & Evolutions from Pokemon
It's a Pokemon in a shape of an ice cream. I've got nothing, although an interesting question to blow your mind for you.
If you're a Vegetarian and you eat a plant Pokemon, would you still be a Vegetarian?
1. Magical Creatures from Pretty Cure
Tell me if you've heard this plot before. Magical Creature from another world arrives in our world followed by a monster who has conquered said world, the little creature needs your help and the young girl who finds you agrees to this; in doing so you transform her into a Magical Girl complete with Magical Item, poofy dress and impossible hair. You then fight a bunch of monsters for 50 episodes, sometimes with a few other girls, you then defeat the big boss and then the Magical Creatures leave and depending on the series, wipes the girl's memory clean so as not to give her several years of psychiatry well into Adulthood. I'm starting to think Kyubey was being nice compared to other Magical Creatures.
When it comes to obscure titles I can certainly find them, today we look at 90s OVA series Hyper Doll.
Using a mixture of humor from Dirty Pair, Slayers & Sentai shows, Hyper Doll is about the misadventures of Mew & Mica, a pair of alien android superheroes sent to Earth to protect it. Your typical villains include a giant worm and giant jellyfish as per the style of many Sentai shows but seems to have more in common with American cartoon Powerpuff Girls. The core part of the humor within this OVA is that Mew & Mica are lazy and uncaring of the situations that go on and would rather be normal school girls in their civilian identities.
Hyper Doll suffers a lot from over ambitious marketing as they attempted to break into the already clogged anime market of the mid 90s using live action sections for a number of their songs, it is even heavily implied that the show was meant to be a stage show production with the amount of times the characters are shown singing as idols during the cheesy opening sequence, if the gaudy superhero outfits and overly sparkly earrings didn't already give it away.
Aaarrrrggghhhh! Too much retro cheese!
There's even an English version of the theme song included with the dub release which should be fairly easy to find on your local Youtube network.
The DVD should be an easy find in a discount store; for this review I worked from the VHS copy which I purchased a very long time ago and has been gathering dust in my Endless Wardrobe ever since.
Final Verdict: It's pretty crap to be honest, but fits quite well in an Anime Society gig or a con panel on obscure anime. Otherwise I'd give this show a miss.
A popular theme at the moment in all the industries in geekland is the reboot. Take a popular show from eons ago and reboot it for a modern audience, but there are some that still need doing, so here are ten series that need that treatment.
10. Dirty Pair
This series has already been rebooted once with the Flash series in the 90s but deserves another go in the modern era with new art directive and Dirty Pair's universal laws allow for limitless possibilities.
9. Moldiver
Moldiver in basic terms is the geekiest way of becoming Superman. The plot had potential to expand further and the 20th century memorabilia could easily make for a character of the week plot.
8. Yu-Gi-Oh
I'm probably one of only a select few who want to bring back the original Yu-Gi-Oh series with the Russian Roulette style games instead of Children's Card Games but that series is in dire need of a new art directive.
7. Shamanic Princess
The story was utterly confusing but the mythos and art style are worthy enough to give this show another chance and maybe simplify what's going on.
6. Pokemon
Those who saw the Black & White 2 trailer witnessed a Pokemon that could never exist, but petitions demand that the edgier, older, more serious stories, replace the childish repetition of seeing Ash go on a journey he's never going to finish.
5. Fruits Basket
This series is one of the few shows that should've followed the entire story and I'm willing to bet that it would make way more money than it's original.
4. Escaflowne
It's sad that this series has been forgotten in recent years, but that's because it holds such an obscure and confusing legacy; new guidance would breath new life into this series and maybe Hitomi would actually kiss Van Fanel.
3. Sailor Moon
As of now, this is in development but has been announced as delayed. I am hoping for great things out of this project, especially when it goes up against Pretty Cure a.k.a Magical Girls who can actually fight.
2. Wedding Peach
Now here's an interesting choice but it is justified. Anyone who's seen the recent lineup of young shojo shows will point out the Pretty Rhythm & Pretty Cure franchises as being the most popular, Wedding Peach could easily tap into those models and come out just as popular.
1. Sonic the Hedgehog
There's a rumor going around that Sega may drop Sonic as a mascot so a reboot is essential for Sonic's survival; no humans, no catchy songs, no childish repetition and no video game plots. Play Sonic & his friends in a series that can equal the likes of the SatAM Sonic and it's Archie Comic counterpart.
It's been a while since I last covered an actual cartoon but return with an interesting one from the late 90s early 00s named Histeria.
Histeria is a satire, slapstick comedy about the many, many periods of world history, created by Animaniacs & Freakazoid writer Tom Ruegger.
The series certainly shares many of the elements that made Animaniacs one of the most well recognized shows of the 90s and plays on the strengths of catchy songs, well placed jokes on American pop-culture and an array of characters with the charisma to remain interesting for the length of the series which sadly due to being overly budgeted only lasted 52 episodes rather than the planned 65.
I remember finding history boring when I was in school but this series came too late for me to really give it a chance as it didn't air in the UK until a year after it's original air date and by that time I dropped history.
I find that satire works really well when applied to historical events as it works so much better than trying to force feed facts through burnt pieces of paper or a Tapestry painting. The British equivalent of this series is called Horrible Histories which has been done in both live action and cartoon form and delivers the same kind of humor.
Looking back at Histeria, I found it fun but I forgot it very quickly when it ended and was only reminded when I saw a picture while doing research on a future top 10 list. The problem is that the satire cartoon had run its course throughout the 90s and doesn't really cut it in a new millennium, especially when you consider that the Animaniacs could've done this entire series themselves rather than a whole new cast of characters that are tough to remember.
Overall it's a fun series and beats reading textbooks but doesn't hold up as well as it's older siblings.
