I'm almost finished with NieA 7, so in the meantime, lets look at Cutey Honey Flash.
Honey Kisaragi is a normal high school student, all this changes when Panther Claw kidnap her father, to fight Panther Claw her father leaves her a device to transform into Cutey Honey, like all previous shows prior, Honey uses a selection of disguises including classics like reporter and biker to new ones like nurse and bride.
Fundamentally the story hasn't changed but there are some notable differences.
Other than the already mentioned new disguises, there's a rival Cutey Honey named Misty and Honey herself is the first human incarnation in the franchise, the other noticeable feature is the animation which is very Sailor Moonish, not surprising as this replaced Sailor Moon when it finished it's broadcast and much of the staff jumped onto Cutey Honey Flash.
The show is beautiful to look at and it truly feels like a proper Mahou Shoujo production unlike it's more violent predecessors, but saying that it also feels like a much safer version as it takes far less risks but that can be down to taste more than weakness of the show.
No dub but having seen previous dubs of older shows it would work well.
Final Verdict: Of the Cutey Honey shows, this is argubly the most beautiful, it takes less risks than the much older shows but hardly a criticism as it works just as well as them.
Lets go back to the 80s with Fashion Lala.
Miho is a young girl who dreams of being a fashion designer, but when her father has to go travelling, she's left with her aunt who takes advantage of her and makes her do deliveries and chores for her dress shop. When the Mayor announces a Disco Queen contest, Miho designs a dress for her cousin only for it to be destroyed by her aunt, meanwhile the Mayor's delinquent son aims to destroy the Disco Queen event as a statement against his more scrupulous acts.
As everything descends into chaos, two small dinosaurs appear before Miho and transform her into Fashion Lala, in order to end the chaos.
So yeah it's a Cinderella story but it got all 80s on us and threw in some conflict which actually feels strangely relevant today considering how often people protest.
Fashion Lala herself in her transformed 16 year old form can be best described as a Barbie doll with a more believable body type, the fact that she wants to be a fashion designer which by default is Barbie's job hasn't gone unnoticed.
For an 80s production, it's very high quality and the big final dance number is easily one of Anime's finest moments and I would take this over the series it eventually became, Fancy Lala.
No dub unless Fancy Lala gets re-licensced with extra content.
Final Verdict: It's concept and place in history is interesting to read about and apart from getting a bit 80s on occasion, it's a solid OVA.
I've been visiting the 80s recently so lets look at Chikkun Takkun.
The nefarious Dr Bell has stolen the Waruchin Encyclopedia, a book shaped laptop computer that has had all the evil in the world sealed inside of it; it is able to help create anything the user seeks, so it's basically Wikipedia.
Trying to recapture the Waruchin is Chikkun, a space duck who looks like a small penguin, upon crashing on Earth with his allies Takkun hat and Mechatan, he ends up in the care of Miko and her friends the Kyunkyuns, who are a cheerleading squad I guess. It's up to Chikkun to stop Dr Bell's tyranny if he can stay focused enough to do so.
It's a situation of the week show, relatively short lived and very much 80s in aesthetic. I can get plenty of laughs out of Dr Bell who has a comedic voice and is the type of villain who is capable when serious but ultimately undone by his own ego. But his lust for the Kyunkyuns is creepy, mind you Chikkun is no better but his personality is closer to a six year old. For context the Kyunkyuns are 13. No dub, way too old to have one but part of the fun is Dr Bell's voice and it's passable as a comedy.
Final Verdict: It was acceptable in the 80s. It's aged as poorly as milk in a heatwave, while there is some comedic value to some of the performances it has way to many dodgy 80s tropes to bring it into this era.
It pains me to hit a come down after reviewing a favourite but that's how it works sometimes.
In 2003, a meteor crashes into Venus changing the climate enough to allow humans to colonize the planet.
By 2089 the planet has prospered but it's two biggest nations are at war Ishtar and Aphrodia. We cut to Earth reporter Susan Sommers who hopes to pick up a scoop in the warzone but our main focus is on a bike race team and main character Hiro and his friends as they get unwittingly dragged into the war after the Ishtar nation attacks. Clearly in over their heads they try and participate in the battles only to lose miserably as well as getting some people killed, so they join the Aphrodia army to see if that's any better but with Susan along it just complicates things.
I'll be frank, this is a poor man's Gundam with no robots, just a war with incompetent kids and a bitchy reporter just being useless. While the art direction is incredible for late 80s, the story, dialogue and characters are just really poor and it leaves me not caring when some get killed off, it's even worst when you realise that character designs are basically lifted straight from Gundam especially when the main bad guy looks like a long haired Gihren Zabi.
Dub is okay-ish but it's hardly a saving grace.
Final Verdict: I really didn't care for this, another product of early Central Park Media's grungy sci fi anime collection which joins the likes of Odin, Psychic Wars and MD Geist, an era I want to forget.
When I started Project 1000, I never thought I'd draw one of my favourite anime but here we are as I finally get to talk about Dirty Pair Flash.
Dirty Pair Flash is a 90s re-imagining of the 80s Dirty Pair, not the first to do so as they have rebooted previously as the Original Dirty Pair and even had an American comic version.
Flash is the most interesting entry as they didn't just get one attempt at an OVA, they actually had three attempts and we plan to look at all three.
OVA 1 exists as one big plot as the Lovely Angels have to stop a big time crime boss from stealing a card that will give control over a weapon facility satelite.
Kei and Yuri have a bit of a poor reputation having been put on probation numerous times but get unwittingly dragged into a mission when a dying 3WA agent hands a card to Yuri; unable to avoid being chased down by evil henchmen they completely obliterate the crime district en-route to the 3WA HQ, however this is only the start as they become targets of a former 3WA agent turned assassin, all the while trying to question a D&D obsessed professor and Kei & Yuri splitting up.
The key words in OVA 1 is destructive fun which is what Dirty Pair has always done best, of the three OVAs, 1 has the strongest action scenes but the story is notoriously hard to follow with many scenes involving the villains that have no impact on the story at large, along with some baffling choices, episode 4's fantasy world in particular stands out as being the most jarring. But it's a good start so lets move onto OVA 2.
OVA 2 is also a big plot but has a lot of filler which in a five episode run takes about 60% of the show. This time the Lovely Angels along with a computer geek that looks suspiciously like my brother in law, venture to a planet sized theme park that celebrates the 20th century in order to stop a computer virus, while this doesn't seem like an action packed mission until Touma the computer expert becomes a target for assassination and we get back to normal business, however we give up three episodes for a school ghost mystery, Kei & Yuri catching a con artist to earn money for a fancy dinner and Touma falling for a flowershop girl. OVA 2 has the best comedy but it's story while having an interesting take on the 20th century is poor, it's just not strong enough to only play for two episodes.
The final OVA is closer to the original Dirty Pair of being a villain of the week show but there's still an air of OVA 2's weird episode plot choices.
Episode 1 is Kei saving a baby of an heiress from getting killed by assassins.
Episode 2 the Lovely Angels become targets of a teen assassin.
Episode 3 the Lovely Angels have to learn beach volleyball in order to capture a corrupt politician.
Episode 4 Yuri has to stay with a teen boy who has built a robot copy of her but Yuri hopes it leads to marrying into wealth. Just go with it.
Episode 5 ends on a high as a terrorist attacks 3WA HQ to take revenge on the 3WA chief who originally arrested him.
OVA 3 is the most random of the three, you'd think by following the original Dirty Pair formula this would be the strongest but it's sheer randomness particularly in episode 3 and 4 just feels like cheap fan service but the final episode is the best of the franchise.
So that's Dirty Pair Flash, the dub is decent for early ADVFilms.
It's a mixed bag for the most part, you get the sense that the creators spent too much time throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks with a mix of success and head shaking failure, but if you've read my top 100 anime you'll be asking why I rate this anime so high as it's in my top 5. First anime ever so there is slight bias but the real reason is that it's unapologetic action presented as it was intended, it doesn't need a complex narrative nor does it need to make you think of complex feelings, it's just entertaining and in the end that's really all you need to enjoy anime and Dirty Pair is one of the best examples.
Final Verdict: Dirty Pair Flash has it's moments but for the full experience I'd watch the older versions but the stuff it does get right is still at a very high standard comparable to most anime of it's era and the entertainment value is worth more than even the most popular anime ever.
