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.
Partly inspired by one of the entries, these are the characters who can wear absolutely anything, these characters never stick to one outfit for very long, they always change clothing frequently and have plenty to choose from, so without further delay lets begin.
Honorable Mentions Elizabeth Midford from Black Butler
Always appears in a different dress each time she appears, if it weren't for restrictions in the time period she'd wear every type of dress going. Isaac & Miria from Baccano
They wear a different costume on every heist but the series is too short compared to the other entries who come from longer series. Any Idol or Precure Anime
Because naming them all would not make this list very interesting.
10. Toru Kouno, Yuujirou Shihodani and Mikoto Yutaka from Princess Princess
Our first entries are the only male entries on this list, saying that these pretty boys can pull off absolutely anything whether it be male or female clothing, a testament to the art design this anime has.
9. Naru Narusegawa from Love Hina
As the artist's favorite, Naru gets the pick of pretty much every costume going including anime only, manga covers and promotional art exclusives. It helps that Ken Akamatsu is a cosplay otaku and that his wife is the inspiration for Naru.
8. Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon
While all the Sailor Scouts go through a decent wardrobe of clothes, Usagi gets bonuses for using disguises and battle costume upgrades, heck she even pulls off a very convincing male in the manga.
7. Lum from Urusei Yatsura
The only entry on this list to have more costumes in promotional art than her actual anime, it's something which Rumiko Takahashi did alot of which would transfer into Ranma 1/2, in fact for a long time Lum was the face of anime itself.
6. Honey Kisaragi from Cutey Honey
Honey is a master of disguise and will show case any costume when the situation calls for it, in fact her trademark catchphrase often involves her showcasing her disguises before becoming Cutey Honey.
5. Yuri from Dirty Pair Franchise
Yuri is an interesting case because a good majority of her wardrobe appears in one episode of the Flash series if only to spoof how many outfits she's had over all series in the franchise even those outside of Japan with the Adam Warren comics.
4. Rebecca Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash
Appears in a different outfit every episode and some of her DVD cover costumes are spoofs of other anime characters like Gendou Ikari or cultural icons like Bruce Lee and the Terminator.
3. Sakura Kinomoto from Card Captor Sakura
This is the only entry to actually have her own personal fashion designer in Tomoyo, not by choice and Tomoyo is a little too eager to dress up Sakura for all her battles. Saying that, this is the most diverse set of Magical Girl costumes ever assembled in one show.
2. Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail
She has an armor for every occasion and battle, she even uses her magic to change into regular clothes, she even has special outfits she only gets out when the situation calls for it such as her legendary bikini and her wedding dress. I hate this word but Erza is a real fashionista.
1. Fujiko Mine from Lupin III
This women has appeared in disguises so often that one wonders what she really looks like normally, this even became the subject of her own TV Series spinoff. While previous entries have multiple clothing and one trademark outfit, Fujiko Mine just wears everything and anything, even her trademark catsuits are diverse.
Here are the latest on current projects in all three Worlds.
Retro Retrospective Anime Reviews
Rune Soldier: Working on
Creamy Mami: Working on
Jubei-Chan: Will be done at the weekend
Tiger & Bunny: Coming soon
Irresponsible Captain Tylor: Coming soon
Cartoon Vault
Shuriken School: Coming soon
Xiaolin Showdown: Coming soon
Galaxy High: Coming soon
Winx Club: Working on
Specials
Dirty Pair Week: Delayed due to extensive editing, will be posted sometime in the autumn
Nicktoons Month: In planning stages
Sailor Moon Week: May coincide with the release of the remake
Pokemon Week: Posted on the same week as X&Ys release
Top Tens
Top Ten Best & Worst Pokemon: Planned
Top Ten Best Sailor Moon Characters: Planned
Other Top Ten Lists: I usually come up with most of them last minute so don’t expect anymore planned ones.
Retiring
Big Bang Feature: Not enough time to write them and are better suited to specials
Urban Legends: Same problem, better suited for specials
Walk of Fame
Trope Killers: Will finish by the end of the week
International: All cartoons in Japan are classed as Anime so the next theme is International Greats.
Special Weeks: Pokemon & Sailor Moon weeks will have five entries each
Victory Script
Behind the Anime Pokemon: More chapters will appear the closer we get to Pokemon Week; one chapter is in editing at the moment.
Ballard of Goldena Moonlight: Act 1 is complete as of today and will take a break.
Anime Ads: I may have to scrap this idea, it seemed okay in hindsight.
Brand New for this Autumn & Winter Short Stories Season
Replacing Ballard of Goldena Moonlight for a couple of months will be short stories, based on the many new characters within the extended universe, if any turn out to be popular I shall write full stories for them, the first one is already out. Cartridge Diaries
The promised video game review segment will start with Sonic the Hedgehog. Walk of Fame Requests
Walk of Fame requests are open, either comment in this entry or PM me and I’ll see what I can do, this will be active until the end of the year. Saved from Scrap
This feature challenges me to try and save the world’s worst cartoons & anime in existence from the scrap heap, like the Walk of Fame requests, either comment on this entry or PM me with ideas you’d like me to do, you can even try and challenge me to save something I really hate.
And Now for Some Rest
I’m a little overworked right now so I’ll be taking the next couple of days off, but I’ll be back at the weekend, as usual in this situation I’ll answer any posts and messages in the meantime.
A popular theme at the moment in all the industries in geekland is the reboot. Take a popular show from eons ago and reboot it for a modern audience, but there are some that still need doing, so here are ten series that need that treatment.
10. Dirty Pair
This series has already been rebooted once with the Flash series in the 90s but deserves another go in the modern era with new art directive and Dirty Pair's universal laws allow for limitless possibilities.
9. Moldiver
Moldiver in basic terms is the geekiest way of becoming Superman. The plot had potential to expand further and the 20th century memorabilia could easily make for a character of the week plot.
8. Yu-Gi-Oh
I'm probably one of only a select few who want to bring back the original Yu-Gi-Oh series with the Russian Roulette style games instead of Children's Card Games but that series is in dire need of a new art directive.
7. Shamanic Princess
The story was utterly confusing but the mythos and art style are worthy enough to give this show another chance and maybe simplify what's going on.
6. Pokemon
Those who saw the Black & White 2 trailer witnessed a Pokemon that could never exist, but petitions demand that the edgier, older, more serious stories, replace the childish repetition of seeing Ash go on a journey he's never going to finish.
5. Fruits Basket
This series is one of the few shows that should've followed the entire story and I'm willing to bet that it would make way more money than it's original.
4. Escaflowne
It's sad that this series has been forgotten in recent years, but that's because it holds such an obscure and confusing legacy; new guidance would breath new life into this series and maybe Hitomi would actually kiss Van Fanel.
3. Sailor Moon
As of now, this is in development but has been announced as delayed. I am hoping for great things out of this project, especially when it goes up against Pretty Cure a.k.a Magical Girls who can actually fight.
2. Wedding Peach
Now here's an interesting choice but it is justified. Anyone who's seen the recent lineup of young shojo shows will point out the Pretty Rhythm & Pretty Cure franchises as being the most popular, Wedding Peach could easily tap into those models and come out just as popular.
1. Sonic the Hedgehog
There's a rumor going around that Sega may drop Sonic as a mascot so a reboot is essential for Sonic's survival; no humans, no catchy songs, no childish repetition and no video game plots. Play Sonic & his friends in a series that can equal the likes of the SatAM Sonic and it's Archie Comic counterpart.
Choreographing a fight scene takes some effort on the animators part to do especially when said show has high standards but sadly these ten fall flat. Today I present the Top 10 Worst Anime Fights
10. Needless - The Endless Fight Against the Girl Squad
Midway through the anime, Adam Blade and co. fight against the girl squad and a number of other entrants in what resembles a bedroom. For a series that prides itself on a lack of commonsense and manly testosterone, they waste most of it on this one very long fight that throws in too many lame twists.
9. Bleach - Everyone Against Aizen
Speaking of endless fights, this one takes the piss in terms of length. I've never been so desperate to see someone die and the way Bleach extends itself to make sure Ichigo has some hidden superpower drawn out of nowhere, pretty much killed off any interest I had in this series.
8. Yu-Gi-Oh - Any of Mai Valentine's Duels
Summed up with this.
Although the Abridged Series does a better job.
7. Naruto - Kabuto vs Sasuke
This isn't even a fight, it's just dialogue and flashbacks which are boring as hell. Naruto likes flashbacks a little too much and spoiled what was a very good story arc.
6. Tekken - All the Fights
It baffles me that an Anime film based on a fighting game has such lousy fight scenes. I don't even think the Street Fighter American Cartoon was this bad.
5. Digimon - WarGraymon vs MachineDramon
I'm not a fan of the one slash duel but I understand the significance in most cases, in Digimon considering that more effort was made on the other fight scenes and considering that MachineDramon was curb stomping most of the cast, it came as a disappointment when he was taken out by one slash.
4. Angelic Layer - Anyone of Hikaru's battles in the Layer
While I do enjoy Angelic Layer, I can't stand the logic behind this universe's rules. Hikaru was made a light weight type but seems to have no problem toppling foes twice her size in one hit and seems to take thousands of hits before seeing real damage. No one that small can take so much damage and defeat a foe in one hit!
3. Soul Eater - The Final Battle
Soul Eater is awesome but has one of the most Anti Climatic endings in Anime history when the final boss is defeated by "Being Brave"
2. Sailor Moon - Most Regular Episode Fights
The Monster of the Week shows up and is defeated by a bunch of special moves followed by a thrown tiara or an over the top Moon Scepter attack sequence, rinse and repeat next episode. This is why Pretty Cure is beating you! They actually fight!
1. Pokemon the 1st Movie - Mewtwo Army vs Human & Pokemon Army
When this kicks off, Mewtwo blocks the special moves of the Pokemon so it descends into a painful to watch fist fight/body fight/wing fight, whatever the Pokemon is, then we have the biggest hypocrisy in history when the human characters start saying that fighting is wrong, then Ash does the stupid thing by getting himself killed while the tears of the Pokemon bring him back to life. For a movie that sets itself up so well only for that to happen is just plain wrong.
After showcasing the what if on the Dragonball Harmony Gold dub, I now present something a million times more terrifying. An Americanized Sailor Moon.
This poorly made image above is real, and here is the story.
When Toei Animation brought Sailor Moon to the States for licensing, it received two offers. One from DiC which is the version everyone remembers, and Saban the guys behind the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
DiC pitched a dubbed version of the show while Saban using it's Toon Maker division, pitched a two minute music video showcasing a live action segment of the five main characters followed by an animated sequence featuring the Sailor Scouts. The idea was to have a crossover of Live Action & Cartoon but that's not the worst of it, here's the plot.
After Transforming into Sailor Scouts in a way not much different to She-Ra, they would fight Queen Beryl on her Spaceship using Solar Windsurfers to breathe in space. Luna is now a white cat, Jupiter is black, Mercury is wheelchair bound, Mars is Asian and Venus was rumored to be Latino continuing the 90s cartoon tradition of catering for every person. And just to rub salt into that wound, they would also have vehicles.
The footage for the music video came from a first episode pilot and neither saw light of day, the footage still hangs around online and at conventions as an example of "It could've been so much worst"
The only thing that came out of the Saban pitch was a piece of merchandise called the Mooncycle. It's a very rare piece of Sailor Moon history as it came from the Americanized version rather than the actual series. If you have the Mooncycle it's worth a lot of money.
So there you have it, there is always something far worst than a bad dub, and next time I'll show you another grossly offensive piece of licensing. Til next time.
I now have footage, but sadly this was the best version I can find from a convention a few years ago.
