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.
So from one Lupin film to another, this is Pricess of the Breeze.
Another day at the office for Lupin as this time he targets an airship belonging to the small nation of Shahalta but ends up going after the same things as a band of Sky Pirates.
Knowing that there must be more to this than meets the eye, Lupin uses what he captured, a baby, to try and draw out the pirates. Soon enough he meets Yutika, a young Sky Pirate with a family of ex royal guards holding onto gems that would reveal a massive treasure but the royal family themselves manipulated by a corrupt business man and some dangerous mercenaries seek the same treasure.
I'm going to be honest after seeing four films from this long franchise, it's showing itself to be formulaic, which works for Lupin in a way.
Lupin and Jigen are on a heist but end up losing out due to something bigger landing on their lap.
Fujiko is already in deep with the mystery.
Zenigata is usually hired by the villain but ends up unintentionally helping Lupin.
And Goemon just shows up.
It's an effective formula but it needs to surround a big storyline.
This film was on the right track but it's need to repeat the formula caused numerous plot holes with the biggest one being the baby's parents. It also paces itself a bit schizophrenic like a gamer reacting too early to a time limit despite having more than enough to finish it properly.
The other characters are okay but having to work off some big characters is tough to nail and this film is far too generic to be really good.
I didn't watch the dub but based on the last film's voice acting it shouldn't be an issue.
Final Verdict: It's fine but if you've come into this film having seen one of the better ones you'll feel disappointed.
Think I'm not far off finding that diamond in the rough thanks to Denmark and a return for cartoons this is Ronal the Barbarian.
In the land of Metalonia, legend tells of the hero Kron who defeated the evil demon Zaal with his mighty strength and sword.
Dying from his wounds his blood gave strength to the Barbarian race.
Present day, a wimpy Barbarian named Ronal feels like the odd one out during a routine display of strength and showing off from the Barbarians. The peace gets disturbed by S&M warriors led by the evil Volcazar who promptly defeats them with his indestructible armor.
Ignored for his lack of muscles, Ronal travels to find Kron's sword to defeat Volcazar and stop the revival of Zaal.
Oh and this is unapologetic in it's profanity and over indulgence in sexual innuendo and I love it.
It's rare to find this sort of thing in film especially animation, quite often you get moments expecting certain things to go a certain way but you end up surprised by the outcome such as the overly feminine Amazons or bard Alibert being actually useful on the quest or Ronal being smart enough to infiltrate an Elven Stronghold on his own.
The characters are written extremely well and don't fall into obvious character tropes, the animation style is similar to Aardman's style and for an English dub it's exceptional.
It's not for everyone and it does come across as a budget cartoon and you can see some parallels between this and How to Train your Dragon but if this is the standard of budget cartoon films these days then I'll take ten Ronals over Toy Story 4 any day.
To keep up with everything I've ever reviewed since the beginning I've produced a quick guide saying which Anime and Cartoons I've reviewed, a one line synopsis and a one line verdict for each one. It'll be updated in the near future.
What-...
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On the 11th April 2019 the world lost a genius of the anime world, Monkey Punch creator of Lupin the 3rd one of the most renowned creations in the medium, so today this review is in honour of Monkey Punch.
RIP Monkey Punch 1937-2019
Lupin is up to his usual cat and mouse antics between himself and Zenigata this time taking place in Brazil, but there is a religious cult known as the Nostradamus Sect in the middle of an operation to capture the daughter of business tycoon and presidential candidate Douglas.
Julia the daughter of Douglas just happens to be on the plane that gets hijacked along with Lupin, Jigen, Fujiko and the Brazilian soccer team. With Julia kidnapped Lupin goes to the great Earth building to try and find out what the kidnappers want, it turns out Douglas has the real book of Nostradamus and the Sect want it in exchange for his daughter and to resign his candidacy as President.
Knowing that his uncle almost succeeded in opening the vault, Lupin goes to his prison cell to try and obtain a means to get into the vault himself all the while being pursued by the sect.
Meanwhile the sect brainwashes the Brazilian soccer team to set up the bombs all around the Earth building.
After escaping his own near death, Lupin returns with his gang to try and get into the vault where the final act is played out.
It's classic Lupin action with the stakes much higher than a typical episode, it's fun, action packed and a little ridiculous.
The dub is top notch with some great work from Funimation.
If there's anything I didn't like it's probably the villains, their plan doesn't really make sense as one seems to want the World and the other wants it destroyed, which would've been fine if they weren't on the same team, fairly minor though and doesn't take away from the spectacle.
Final Verdict: Lots of fun and good old classic Lupin action, a worthy addition to the film series.
I seem to be back on my search for that one anime gem among the pile of bad titles and it's now taken me to Wild Cardz.
Based on the PlayStation game of the same name, Wild Cardz is about a strike team called the Crown Knights who defend the Card Kingdom with their card based powers.
Our team are Coco Hearts who can use explosions and telekinesis.
Casa Clover who has the muscle.
Joe Diamond who has super speed.
And their leader Sunday Spade who controls the castle defences.
The peace is broken by a giant chess piece destroying the Kingdom so the Crown Knights go out to try and stop it even though it takes them most the OVA to figure out that it is a god damn chess piece.
I find it hard identifying who are villain is meant to be as about a few minutes into episode 2 another chess piece joins in and fights the other chess piece the Knights are trying to stop, further complicating things is a group of ninjas led by a temptress and a very racist Chinese caricature. There's also a joker who seems to just want to watch the chess pieces fight.
My brain is exhausted after all that and the ending tries to pull a cliff hanger when one character appears to be dead.
The dub is awful, no one can act, lines get botched, voice editing is bad, whoever voiced the Chinese guy should never be hired again and Apollo Smile is also in this. (Ulala from Space Channel 5, the so called "live action anime girl")
Final Verdict: This is just messy action story telling, it's hard for me to get invested with no clear villain, so it makes the OVA drag it's heels when there's no investment to be had in the battle, not helped by god awful voice acting.
I need a drink.
