This will officially be the oldest anime I've ever reviewed circa 1967.
Speed Racer is a racing driver with a desire to be the best in the world, driving the gadget filled car the Mach 5, but every race brings it's own challenge as many unscrupulous characters stop at nothing to prevent Speed from winning, joined by a close family of Mom, Pops, Spritle and Chim Chim along with close friends Trixie and Sparky along with Racer X who is secretly Speed's older brother who ran away from home as the anime would like to remind you, watching over Speed.
There's alot to bear in mind when watching something this old, the animation is choppy, the voice acting is suspect and dated, the actual show is bonkers, so really you have to view this with a pinch of salt.
But for what is a 60s anime it's actually really well made.
So we got a breakdown of things it does right.
1. The depiction of motor racing being dangerous is accurate to the time period considering that an average motor racing discipline in the 60s always had a fatality, all the deaths although not explicit is kept in the English version and the death toll is higher than quite a high number of more famous anime titles.
2. Trixie is a strong female character and one of the earliest examples of the independent female character in anime.
3. The speed of the English speech just adds to the charm of the show and is incredibly meme worthy, keep in mind, four voice actors did everything.
So does it have any faults?
Spritle has too much screen time, the plot tends to repeat itself too much, it doesn't always let Trixie be a strong character, too much shouting and screaming and Speed Racer himself being remarkably dumb.
On it's own merits, it's far better than it ever has any right to be.
Final Verdict: A curiosity, a piece of history and a meme worthy cartoon, Speed Racer more than earns it's reputation.
This has been quite the ride for me.
Rika is a young girl with a secret lineage to a fantasy Kingdom known as the Doll Kingdom, however it's currently in possession of evil forces led by Devaul who uses his minions led by Scarecrow to constantly try to kidnap Rika, luckily Rika is protected by the Doll Knights led by title character Super Doll Licca-Chan activated by Rika's Grandmother.
This series is offensively 90s, not that it has any dodgy content, it's pretty safe for the most part bar Rika's lack of Stranger Danger senses, it's just the style of the whole thing is just so 90s, not helped by the fact that the Doll Knights choose to dress as teenage mall dwellers over a form that would match their status as royal knights.
This is actually based on the fashion doll of the same name that's been going on just as long as the Barbie doll and like Barbie this is a weird entry in a franchise who at the time in the late 90s were struggling to stay relevant, new wave girl power bands like the Spice Girls and game changing shojo series Sailor Moon being the main rivals.
There are no dubs for English regions only Europe.
Final Verdict: A show already dated by 90s anime standards, it's hardly offensive but hardly a thrilling watch as it becomes a tiring marathon of watching the same failed kidnapping plot every episode.
I've been waiting to do this review for a while now.
Legend tells of the Bandit King who can steal anything, even the stars in the sky, the title of which held by Jing, a young thief alongside the smart mouthed crow Kir who can bond with Jing to become a powerful blaster, each episode focusses on a rare treasure of which Jing is after, more often than not obtaining said treasures among a carnival of misfits and creative characters all named after cocktails and alcoholic drinks, it lacks the brute force approach of regular Shonen anime but makes up for it in creative art and philosophical story telling, there's more to it than just obtaining the treasure but leaving a last impression on all who cross Jing be it a dreamweaver in a prison, a princess in a town plagued by endless battles or even protecting a creature that could explode at any moment.
King of Bandits Jing is the absolute master of leaving such a lasting impression that you can never have a bad ending, it's a shame that the author never did anything else, dub is pretty good as well.
Final Verdict: An underrated classic that deserves way more praise for always leaving the reader satisfied after every story, easily top ten best anime in creativity, characters and story, there's no anime like it anywhere.
Time for a look at some of that kind of anime.
In a world where rampant earthquakes have reduced many of Earth's cities submerged in the ocean, Aika works as a salvage operations specialist locating dangerous artifacts in said sunken cities, when a job to obtain Lagu, an artifact to rebuild nature is given to Aika, it is stolen by the effeminate Rudolph Hagen and his army of women from the Delmo Corporation, his plan is to wipe out humanity so he can rebuild it with just him and his all female army, yes really; Aika with a super form accessed through her bustier, stops at nothing to bring an end to Hagen, his sister and the Delmo Group, the other half of the series focuses on individual episodes between Aika and Delmo.
This is basically all the panty shots the anime, a show like this has to be seen to be believed but as long as you see this as a satire that doesn't need to be taken seriously, you can enjoy yourself laughing hysterically at the absurdity on screen, the fact that Hagen wants to create a harem world where he is the only male is too ridiculous to be taken seriously.
Dub is very old school, it's not dreadful but is rough around the edges.
Final Verdict: Over sexed and extremely ridiculous but as long as you view it as so bad it's good, then you should get a good laugh out of it.
Didn't think I would talk this much about the Dot Hack franchise.
Shugo and Rena are twins separated by their divorced parents, one day they win the Avatars of the Legendary Dot Hacker heroes Kite and Black Rose entering the Online game The World.
The game itself suffers from unusual problems when the monsters seemingly can't be destroyed, when Shugo is killed in battle, he is revived by Aura and given the Twilight Bracelet once owned by Kite allowing him to use Data Drain, an overpowered ability to reduce monsters to their lowest level by rewriting the code.
As the issue worsens, Rena is kidnapped by a mysterious entity reducing her real life self into a coma. Shugo joined by Mireille, Hotaru, Ouka, Sanjuro and Balmung, set out to prevent the collapse of the World and save Rena.
There's a bit more to this adaption over Hack Sign as it shows us alot more game in this anime about an online game but is severely let down by failing to utilize it's more human moments effectively and ultimately leading it's cast on a wild goose chase not helped by botched antagonists, there's no lead up or any foreshadowing to the final boss not to mention Shugo being woefully bad at the game and Rena forced to play the damsel in distress despite looking like the smarter character.
The dub is very grating, I don't want to hear the names Shugo and Rena for a long time.
Speaking of Shugo and Rena, enough with the sister complex already, it's creepy, nor do I appreciate you trying to sneak in fan service.
Legend of the Twilight has the bonus of being one of the first manga I ever read, while that story is vastly different to the anime, I can't look at either of them with any fond memories; My nostalgic side questions why I liked this series, might be because the secondary cast more than makes up for the poor leads and each one has a more interesting story to tell.
Final Verdict: A little more active than Hack Sign but still suffers from the constant missed opportunities presented in it's narrative. A better writer could save this franchise easily such is the curse of Dot Hack's writing.
