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.
Anime likes to make people feel good about themselves, even those who are handicapped, so here are the top ten Handicapped Anime Characters. Rules this time is that the person on the list needs to be capable of doing awesome things despite the handicap, I do not include illness seeing as most characters with this don't see it as a handicap so Whitebeard from One Piece is disqualified as is Nagato from Naruto seeing as his extra bodies did all the fighting and not him personally. So lets begin.
10. Date Masamune from Sengoku Basara
Missing an eye never seems much of a handicap but in Sengoku times it was enough to be dismissed from active duty, not for Masamune however. In Sengoku Basara he proves himself to be the strongest character in the series, even his real life counterpart survived the Sengoku period and gained much respect from other warlords.
9. Guts from Berserk
In such a brutal series it comes as no surprise that protagonist Guts would end up losing an arm and an eye, something which later proves to have been a better choice as he hides a cannon in his new arm & magnetic grip for holding the sword better.
8. Shanks from One Piece
He lost his arm right at the beginning of the series but still has the power to stop most people in their tracks, the worst damage he's had was the three scars to his face, what makes it better is that he lost his better arm being left handed and is still capable of so much.
7. Gildarts from Fairy Tail
I get the feeling that him and Shanks are long lost brothers, but Gildarts goes the extra mile having lost an arm & a leg and a few internal organs but is still rated the strongest in Fairy Tail. Small nod to Erza for an artificial eye.
6. Andrew Waldfeld from Gundam Seed
Andrew lost an arm, a leg and an eye but is still capable of defeating able bodied pilots and newtypes, I mean coordinators. Made even more impressive when you think that he's a minor character that survived a Gundam series.
5. Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist
One of the most famous but surprisingly not number one. Missing an arm & a leg and fitted with Automail to make up for it, Edward Elric remains one of the greatest anime characters in history. He's still short.
4. Shishio Makoto from Rurouni Kenshin
A failed assassination attempt left him without sweat glands meaning a prolonged fight would burn his body to cinders but he manages to defeat most of the strongest members of Kenshin's team before his time runs out.
3. Judau Ashta & ZZ Gundam from ZZ Gundam
This is something that needs to be seen to believed. Judau Ashta is 80 years old and still alive, making him the longest living Gundam pilot in history but even more impressive is that he's still piloting ZZ Gundam that has rusted outdated technology and a peg leg but can still take out Mobile Suits like a pro.
2. Sora Takeuchi from Air Gear
The former leader of Sleeping Forest ended up wheelchair bound after having his legs broken but is still a capable storm rider and looks even more impressive when he performs in his wheelchair.
1. Lord Genome from Gurren Lagann
All that's left of him after part one was his head and yet it was his spiral energy that kicked off the final battle against the anti-spirals, let that sink in a moment. Just his head!
Choreographing a fight scene takes some effort on the animators part to do especially when said show has high standards but sadly these ten fall flat. Today I present the Top 10 Worst Anime Fights
10. Needless - The Endless Fight Against the Girl Squad
Midway through the anime, Adam Blade and co. fight against the girl squad and a number of other entrants in what resembles a bedroom. For a series that prides itself on a lack of commonsense and manly testosterone, they waste most of it on this one very long fight that throws in too many lame twists.
9. Bleach - Everyone Against Aizen
Speaking of endless fights, this one takes the piss in terms of length. I've never been so desperate to see someone die and the way Bleach extends itself to make sure Ichigo has some hidden superpower drawn out of nowhere, pretty much killed off any interest I had in this series.
8. Yu-Gi-Oh - Any of Mai Valentine's Duels
Summed up with this.
Although the Abridged Series does a better job.
7. Naruto - Kabuto vs Sasuke
This isn't even a fight, it's just dialogue and flashbacks which are boring as hell. Naruto likes flashbacks a little too much and spoiled what was a very good story arc.
6. Tekken - All the Fights
It baffles me that an Anime film based on a fighting game has such lousy fight scenes. I don't even think the Street Fighter American Cartoon was this bad.
5. Digimon - WarGraymon vs MachineDramon
I'm not a fan of the one slash duel but I understand the significance in most cases, in Digimon considering that more effort was made on the other fight scenes and considering that MachineDramon was curb stomping most of the cast, it came as a disappointment when he was taken out by one slash.
4. Angelic Layer - Anyone of Hikaru's battles in the Layer
While I do enjoy Angelic Layer, I can't stand the logic behind this universe's rules. Hikaru was made a light weight type but seems to have no problem toppling foes twice her size in one hit and seems to take thousands of hits before seeing real damage. No one that small can take so much damage and defeat a foe in one hit!
3. Soul Eater - The Final Battle
Soul Eater is awesome but has one of the most Anti Climatic endings in Anime history when the final boss is defeated by "Being Brave"
2. Sailor Moon - Most Regular Episode Fights
The Monster of the Week shows up and is defeated by a bunch of special moves followed by a thrown tiara or an over the top Moon Scepter attack sequence, rinse and repeat next episode. This is why Pretty Cure is beating you! They actually fight!
1. Pokemon the 1st Movie - Mewtwo Army vs Human & Pokemon Army
When this kicks off, Mewtwo blocks the special moves of the Pokemon so it descends into a painful to watch fist fight/body fight/wing fight, whatever the Pokemon is, then we have the biggest hypocrisy in history when the human characters start saying that fighting is wrong, then Ash does the stupid thing by getting himself killed while the tears of the Pokemon bring him back to life. For a movie that sets itself up so well only for that to happen is just plain wrong.
I've been wanting to review this anime since I started it and now that it's done here is what I think of Pani Poni Dash.
We begin with ten year old Rebecca Miyamoto whose about to start a new job as a teacher at a Japanese High School, if you're wondering where you've heard that before, you may be thinking of Negima but Pani Poni Dash started in Manga format back in 2001, yes like Needless it's older than it looks.
On the way Rebecca is subjected to many strange things including a cat locked in a vending machine who hands out warm cans and claims he's god, Rebecca is also being spied on by Aliens who look like funky trash cans whose job in this series is just to spy on Becky and make snarky comments. Traveling with Becky is Mesousa, a horribly depressed bunny rabbit.
Now a game for anyone who fancies posting comments called trope bingo.
Episode one introduces most of the cast and by episode five we learn pretty much everyone so all you need to do is name ten character tropes without looking at TV Tropes and you win.
Back to the review, the students get very excited at the prospect of having a kid teacher so they mess around with her to the point that they scare her off behind the curtain. While there are plenty of characters in this series the ones were focusing on the most is Class 1C made of Rei, Himeko, Ichijo, Kurumi, Miyako & No.6 Sayaka.
From there we are subjected to the weird and wonderful the show has to offer in an Azumanga Daioh meets Excel Saga as painted by Roy Lichtenstein and that's where things start going off key.
A gag series needs to keep the jokes and references flowing constantly and can't afford to stop or repeat anything otherwise the characters will end up falling flat later on. Pani Poni Dash insists on going with running gags for 90% of it's content and suffers for it as a result.
Himeko's "Maho" (Ten times worst in the dub), Sayaka's "XY of the year", Kurumi's boring sulk routine, Miyako's shiny head and Mesousa's constant depression fall really flat when it's played out every episode with only Rei, Ichijo and Becky making an effort to diversify but even they fall flat sometimes when you fail to be surprised by them anymore (Which is strange considering how random Ichijo can be). This also extends to the rest of the cast apart from a few exceptions but still ultimately falling flat when they do their routine for the tenth time.
To put all that in more simple terms, it's like being told the same joke everyday, it gets less funny the more you hear it and by the end of it you just want to watch something else, this gets harder to watch when you're trying to catch references as well. I think ADV had Video notes but the version I got was a re-release so I've got the unfortunate task of re-watching the series to catch all the references.
You know what, I expected better from this series, especially when the art style is so attractive to watch; when you look back at it's senior shows Azumanga Daioh and Excel Saga you get the feeling that the creators watched both shows and then showed up at the meeting saying "combine these two!"
Final Verdict: I expected a lot more from this series considering how good the art style is; while it does keep you drawn in, the show can be tiring to watch and can easily become boring if watched constantly. I recommend for best viewing to watch one episode a week to stop it from becoming boring.
