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.
Ever had that anime you watched years ago but revisiting it makes you wonder why you even liked it, that's the energy going into today's review.
Kazuya is an engineer college student with a love of robotics as he works on Ikariya, a robot squid, in order to pass his course.
Nanbara, Kazuya's self proclaimed friend and enemy tries to sabotage him with a computer virus only to cause Kazuya to make an order for a robot maid, this tiny maid known as May becomes part of Kazuya's life as she tries her best to make him happy, all the while drawing in more Cyberdolls like May as it seems Kazuya has more in common with these Cyberdolls than you think.
I watched this as a teen and loved it but returning to it in my 30s, it doesn't seem that great, the story is confusing, lacking explanations which would answer some essential questions; the show's gimmick of May being small is scrapped mid series losing it's uniqueness among it's peers at the time; with Nanbara being Nanbara, the dub is unwatchable suffering from early dub awkardness, it's not bad but my god Nanbara is only just bearable in Japanese.
It's not entirely terrible, it's more restrained than most harem shows and much of the cast are very endearing, I think that's what I remembered best when I watched it back in 2002 and that remains true now.
Final Verdict: The story needs some serious rewrites because there is a good anime within this as the characters are good to work with, otherwise it's okay.
Up next, something everyone needs to watch.
Meimi is a normal school girl by day, but by night she is the phantom thief Saint Tail, whose skills inherited by her parents, a stage magician father and a former phantom thief mother, give her the powers to recover items that have been stolen like a kawaii Robin Hood.
Her antics are approved by the church and trainee nun Seira but chasing her is Asuka Jr, the son of a detective.
Saint Tail is the greatest hits of the 90s, borrowing elements from Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Detective Conan and many Phantom Thief stories, it's a glorious story, with beautiful art and fantastic characters with a wholesome feel that is sorely missed in current generation anime, it's horribly underrated and deserves more praise.
It's only real issue is a weak dub, I don't find it bad but it just suffers from early dub syndrome.
Final Verdict: I can't recommend this anime enough, go watch it, especially if you like classic magical girl shows.
Well I got a good message out of this show.
Chika known for having a tomboyish personality wants to act more feminine so decides on joining the Brass Band in order to clean up her image, however in joining the club she meets her childhood friend Haruta, in doing so and in an effort to aim for the brass band competition and maybe earn sensei Kusakabe's love, the duo set out to find more band members all the while solving mysteries as to why they stopped playing or whatever happens to trouble them.
For any mystery series, the fun comes from working out the solution from the little clues dropped throughout the episode, and then marvelling at the answer if you get it right or still being impressed by the solution despite getting it wrong however for an anime mystery, many clues maybe more common knowledge to the average Japanese person but not the average westerner.
For an example I'll talk about three early episodes, number 2, 4 and 5.
Episode 2 is solving a blank rubix cube which has a clever solution and meaning but still fairly difficult to figure out on your own without knowing how certain materials work.
Episode 4 deals with a mystery of an apartment block that is said to be plagued by ghosts but to solve this requires trivia knowledge of the year they talk about which is exclusive to the Japanese.
Episode 5 deals with a band member's grandfather who came back from America acting amnesiac, while this one is a little more Western friendly it still requires knowledge of historical events, to make it harder it pulls a false solution followed by the actual solution.
But you can see what I'm getting at, even at near 33 years old, I would not guess half the mysteries in this anime because I'm not Japanese. So it's a hard sell for westerners because of it.
I still enjoyed what I saw, the colour palette is glorious, the mysteries are well written, the characters all have great chemistry and I can still appreciate the stuff I do learn from it.
As far as I know, there's no dub.
Final Verdict: As a mystery anime, it's a hard sell for any westerner but if you can accept that then you've got yourselves a good anime.
Licensing anime in the west is difficult to digest, especially when dubs were expected of every property so some do become lost, especially when you get into the legal side of things. Here are ten dubs lost to time.
10. Futari wa Precure
Before Precure was a household name there was an attempt by 4kids to dub the series but unable to find a channel that would take it, the license ran out which was then picked up by Ocean dubs for Canadian and British release, it's unknown whether they got anywhere with it but there are rumours of a 4kids opening that was likely made as a promo.
9. Cyborg 009
The original dub for Toonami was lost after the broadcast when they re-recorded some episodes due to mild profanity, there's also episodes recorded of two different voice actors for the lead role and because Cartoon Network are dicks, they didn't release the final episodes despite already being dubbed.
8. Escaflowne
The Fox Kids alternative dub was butchered beyond belief to the point that it was barely recognisable, but it's been lost since it's cancellation with only the first dub in it's entirety on dvd being a clue of it's fox kids era.
7. Idaten Jump
A toy based anime expected to jump start another franchise ultimately failed leaving only a couple of dub episodes littered online with the bonus of the original Japanese also being notorious to find.
6. Gurren Lagann
ADV Film's last attempt at a dub was never finished as the company went under and the anime ultimately went to another company, this is also the reason why it started release as a subbed only until the rights were sorted.
5. Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
ADV Films again had this one but failed to find a broadcaster so the rights ended up expiring but TV Aichi who own the rights has the full completed dub in their possession with no plans to release it and still have it.
4. Keroro Gunso
Guess what? ADV Films again, they had three different versions of the dub with lots of switched around voices and even when it went to Funimation there were still unreleased dub episodes.
3. Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal
The death of 4kids animation came with it a lengthy bankruptcy period in which Yu-Gi-Oh was caught in the middle. This would need another post to explain but in short 4Kids dub still exists but another company made a dub which was never used and ultimately never will, Yu-Gi-Oh is dubbed by it's own company run by Konami with a few ex 4Kids employees who currently hold all the Yu-Gi-Oh dubs.
2. All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku
A British dub was made but no evidence of it exists on home release with only occasional videos popping on Youtube. I have seen these dubs but sadly I can't give evidence.
1. Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora
But I can with this one.
Youtubber Kenny Lauderdale is an expert at finding long forgotten anime but as to where this dub was found is a mystery, as you can see it's god damn terrible. It's probably at this time the most lost dub in existence as at least with the others there was proof that it existed. This one has no leads other than that footage.
It's been a while, let's fix that.
Joe is a massive film buff, particularly the Superhero genre, on a date to the Cinema with girlfriend Silvia, the movie begins to act weird which leads to Silvia being kidnapped by an organisation calling itself Jadow dragging Joe into Movieland. Joe must take on the role of a superhero dubbed Viewtiful Joe bestowed to him by his idol Captain Blue in order to stop Jadow and it's unique army of monsters to get back Silvia and defeat it's big boss. Joining Joe is another movie fan in Captain Blue Jr and even Silvia herself after she gets rescued which is followed up by another evil group taking over in Season 2.
While the anime stays pretty faithful as an adaptation of the games, it's a little bit tame, which is a shame as it's art style lends itself to some pretty stylish scenes and gives Viewtiful Joe a unique identity among it's peers, it's main weaknesses are trying to aim at a younger audience, having to shoe horn in Blue Jr and going through a few episodes of nothing, plus the plot twists are kind of predictable.
But as for producing good characters, it does a superb job at making every character memorable, I especially love Silvia and her romance dynamic with Joe as being relatable to anyone who's had to date a geek.
Dub is nowhere near as good as the games' actors and I actually prefer the subbed version in Japanese and even Spanish.
Final Verdict: It's biggest offence was not using it's full potential, nonetheless it's a solid anime adaptation to a great cult video game franchise.
