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.
If you thought the last review had violence, the Germans clearly disagree as they have Felidae. Slight warning the subject I'm discussing is very disturbing so read with caution.
A cat named Francis has just moved into a new neighbourhood and already there's trouble as cats are being murdered on a near daily basis; with help from Bluebeard, Francis discovers a suicide cult in which cats are willingly electrocuting themselves as it's soon discovered that the place linked to all this was a former animal testing lab and the cult aims to create a master race of cats by selecting worthy individuals through this twisted process further hinted at with the nightmare sequence of Scientist Gregor Mendal ripping apart cats with strings.
This is disturbing and I grew up with Watership Down a cartoon infamous for animal death.
I'm racking around my brain wondering how this cartoon film was allowed to be made and even more amazed that it was dubbed in English. The sad thing is it's extremely well made both story and voice acting but graphic deaths of cats in gruesome detail makes every other disturbing scene you've grown up with seem tame in comparison. Your sick Germany your sick.
The things I watch just to be able to review them. This is Mad Bull 34.
New York is a place overrun with crime and in charge of dealing with it are the 34th precinct lead by Mad Bull and his partner Daizaburo. Mad Bull's methods of dealing with crime mostly involve ultra violent over the top killing whether it be guns or explosives strapped to his ummm crotch as he makes it his mission to rid New York of organized crime and each episode is a different case but you can guarantee that you'll get sex, violence and out right left field bonkers scenes as this was pre dvd era and I didn't have much anime to choose from growing up. I'm glad in a way we left this era behind because it only reinforces the negative stereotypes anime gained from it's early days in the west, so different anime is today that Goblin Slayer is considered horrific to watch yet rape and murder fills out the entire run of Mad Bull 34 and got a home release without being challenged so has the world gone too soft or has anime changed for the better. I'd go with the former seeing as shock and awe is still a tactic some directors still use even if the regulations tighten up.
Final Verdict: Mad Bull 34 should serve as a reminder as to why we don't dominate the medium with ultra violence anymore, it's crude, uncomfortable and just insane and you'll call Goblin Slayer a kid's show by the end of it.
Moving on and I'm still a day behind we review Thumbelina.
In a lone cottage in the woods an elderly lady meets a tiny girl born from a flower. Life progresses as you might think for the tiny girl named Thumbelina as she struggles with her obvious size difference on the farm with many animals singing what the audience already figured out.
It all changes one night when a fairy prince named Cornelius meets Thumbelina and shows her the world. Happy that she's not the only tiny person in the world she immediately falls in love with Cornelius but numerous animals fall in love with Thumbelina and each try and snatch her away for their own nefarious needs often told in terrible songs.
Corny love story is corny and fashion sense is even worse. Don Bluth could have made a bit more effort in making more nightmarish villains but a few love sick animals will have to do. Cornelius was not much help in this, he gets frozen for a bit proving that he's not that good at his job which may turn into a running theme for these reviews.
These days it's easy to make fun of and to be honest Swan Princess is a better Disney knock off which is not really a compliment. It's any wonder the princess and prince characters have changed so much considering what we had growing up.
I was meant to post this yesterday but I was so tired I practically passed out on the bed. As a way of releasing the stress of what has been a very difficult year, the month of November I will be reviewing some terrible cartoons and anime, requests are open and I may have to miss a couple of days due to an imminent house move so I start the ball rolling with Goldie Gold and Action Jack.
Goldie Gold is the world's richest girl and addicted to action, protecting her is reporter action Jack who together uncover crimes and stop evil organisations with the power of bottomless money.
First problem of this series is obvious, how absurd Goldie's unending supply of riches is as she seems to get out of all problems through convenient gadgets and seems to have a mansion in every possible place in the world.
Second problem is that Action Jack is a terrible bodyguard as his attempts at saving the day are easily thwarted by the episode villain.
And finally both are generally terrible at their jobs as they seem to botch their way out of trouble either through convenient gadgets or dumb luck when they should've been killed at least 25 times that's two per episode.
The plot is ridiculous, the characters are incompetent and it's an obvious Richie Rich knock off.
I normally refrain from ranting about anything but I feel the recent controversy around this show needs clearing up.
High Guardian Spice is a show that streaming site Crunchyroll is producing as it makes strides in trying to compete on the level of Netflix but the trailer had people talking and here's why.
1. It's not even a trailer, it's much closer to a behind the scenes documentry.
2. From what we know of the basic premise it's a show that looks to be jumping on the recent sucess of My Hero Academia a.k.a the trend of having a school for anything including heroes, guardians or hunters.
3. It's designs are generic and wouldn't be out of place in precure or little witch academia.
4. It mentions a lot about the diversity of it's staff being all female despite the fact that's actually not diversity, please read a dictionary.
5. Previous attempts at marketing a product with it's diversity didn't end well.
6. Just by criticizing this series I'll be classed as ignorant to diversity despite the fact that I'm a supporter of free love for everyone.
7. I don't even know who this series is meant for.
8. Crunchyroll have enough problems since they lost their partnership with Funimation which may lose subscriptions along with some seriously popular shows.
9. The track record for any Western anime series is not great unless your series is Avatar or it was made in France.
10. The Anime and Manga community has never needed help promoting diversity because due to the fact that the Japanese cater for everyone and rarely censor creative freedom you get the broadest most diverse range in the world and no other medium comes close to what it offers; and if your still not convinced here's a list.
Son Goku the most recognised hero of anime has always been voiced by a female VA in Japan.
CLAMP a group of female manga artists have been producing manga for over 30 years long before all female creators became a trend.
Rumiko Takahashi is frequently regarded as the highest paid manga artist.
The longest running anime of all time is about a middle aged woman and her family.
You get the point, diversity is the last thing anime and manga need help with and with it's sub cultures of LGBT friendly shows and frequently ambiguous gendered characters and the general acceptance of all diversities any talk of thinking it's not will be ignored.
