A Trip Thru My Favourite Anime

        Well, I figured I wanted to just fool around and reminisce about all those good old anime shows that I watched over the years (and there has been quite a few of those). I'll start with about 5 and just build up some more every now and then. I'll probably never catch up with them all.

Kodomo no Omacha (Child's Toy):

I've watched the OAV and the first 28 episodes of this very fun show. It's a lot like Marmalade Boy with weird parental situations and a quiet boy that the girl (main chara) falls for in school. That's where the similarity ends though. Where Marmalade Boy was a comedy about 15/16 year olds where there are plenty of crossed relationships and the lead chara Miki had a pronounced tendency to brood over things, Child's Toy is about a 12/13 year olds with no seriously crossed relationships (just mild misunderstandings) and the main character Sana is simply way to energetic and happy-go-lucky to ever brood for more than about 30 seconds (literally!). In fact, Sana is a member of the Komowari Theatre and a well-known TV celebrity and is very exciteable and likely to burst into rap/song at the drop of a hat (ever seen Fairy Princess Ren? Same director apparently. That explains a lot). In any case, it is more a comedy with romance rather than a romance with comedy. This is about little kids after all.It's all very cute, while still managing to be quite amusing.

Gundam 08th MS Team:

This is probably one of the most entertaining "original" Gundam universe stories I've seen (not that I've seen many mind you). Instead of being the airy-fairy story of some high-minded "new-type" who foolishly jumps into battle after battle and kicks enough ass to save the Federation, it follows a squad of earthbound Gundam pilots and their battles against the local members of Jion. The thread that ties the whole thing together is the mad plan of one Jion to develop the Asporous, a huge mobile armor apparently designed to destroy the Federation HQ at Jabro and anything else that needs stomping. In a strange twist of fate, the pilot of the Asporous is the sister of the creator and the star-crossed lover of the leader of the 08th MS, Shiro Amada. In any case, what makes this more fun that most it the fact that it really is about a group of warriors that have to learn to get along together through hard work and ass-pounding difficulties (not like those pansies in the other flicks that go crying home to momma over nothing). Also, the animation is very good (it's an OVA series of course).

Armored Trooper VOTOMS:

This show is a classic of the realistic-mecha, dogs of war school. It's all about Chirico Cuvie and his quest thru a war torn galaxy. On his last mission, he found a mysterious woman in some weird coffin-like chamber. He is immediately fascinated by her (she's nude of course). The catch is that his last mission is with a secret cabal that winds up blowing him off the asteroid he is on and gets him thrown in jail by his superiors when he is rescued. This leads into a complex plot where he is constantly struggling to find out who is who, what is what and catch up with that chick (known only as "Proto-One" to begin with and chased after by many parties). VOTOMS ran for five seasons with each season taking place in a different place and introducing new mecha. Each season usually ended in an orgiastic bloodbath as Chirico manages to get almost everyone involved into a huge mecha slug-fest and bugs out before they catch him. That whole complex plot was drawcard number one. Number two is the wonderful mass-issue style mecha that appear all through the series fighting it out in the ruins of devasted cities and jungles and any other bad-assed bit of terrain they can find. All in all, if you consider yourself a mecha fan at all, I cannot recommend this show highly enough. It'll keep ya going for some time :)

Shamanic Princess:

The artwork in this OAV series is very unusual (to me), but quite beautiful all the same. There is a great dichotomy between the day time and night time looks of each of the main characters. During the day, they are beautiful with light normal clothing (at the local school, they are teenagers of course and what better way to escape suspicion eh?). At night, they tend to bring out the dark, tight-fitting bad boy/girl outfits and get down to business. Also, the soundtrack displays much of the same qualities, so it really enhances the mood. It's a fairly short OAV series running to only 6 episodes and the last 2 are "flashback" episodes that take place before the first four (and fill in most any lingering questions you might have as well as answering some you might not have thought of yet). Of course, the best part of the whole show is that is isn't just pretty, there is a fair bit of drama and action in there too and it should keep you hanging on to see (very much to see) what is going to happen next.

Blue Seed:

This was a lot better than I originally expected. At first I thought it was just another boring anime with the squeally chick, the bad-assed demonic looking fellow and the giant monster of the week he beats the crap out of. Fortunately, my first impressions were somewhat erroneous. It is all that, but there is a fair bit more to it as well. You have a whole task force of guys set up to deal with the situation and it really reminded me a lot of the team in PatLabor where the story was as much about them and their little incidents and bits of humour as it was about the actual Labors and fighting. In short, this has enough action, giant monsters, comedy, romance, drama and all the other bits it takes to make a very nicely rounded show. I think most people could enjoy this one if they gave it a chance.

DNAČ:

A great romantic comedy by the guy who brought you Video Girl Ai (Masakazu Katsura that is). Runs for about 13 episodes and then follows on with a 3 part OAV series (eek, scary, only ran one season in Japan instead of the usual two minimum. Short story I guess). The main plot point is that this poor smuck who literally pukes every time he gets a bit excited about a woman is in fact the legendary Mega Playboy in the future (who has had children by 100 women. Then all of those 100 children are mega playboys too and pretty soon you have a population problem of epic proportions). So of course they send back a woman to try and stop him (that's logical right? send back a cute young girl looking for the man of her dreams to stop the "evil" megaplayboy who is irresistable to women?) by shooting him with a bullet that can rewrite his DNA. Suffice to say that that this young girl, one Karin Aoi by name is not exactly the brightest of sorts and manages to stuff it up badly. In fact, she shoots him with a bullet that makes him an even more powerful  megaplayboy than he was going to be. Cue lots more plot lines and giggles and Karin tries to straighten things out and it all gets way more tangled before getting any neater.A barrel of monkeys kind of anime :)

Macross 7:

A fantastic 49 episode tale of music, love and soul. It all starts off prosaically enough with the main character Basara Nekki late for his own concert and new band member Mylene Jenius scolding him. But Basara isn't just your average singing fool. He's a special singing fool. When a bunch of aliens appear out of nowhere and start raiding the ship, he goes out in a top of the line model Valkyrie Fighter to sing to the aliens. He doesn't get anywhere yet, but it does introduce his "rival", a fighter pilot named Gamlin, who would very much rather he does not get in the way (in more ways than one of course). From there, it starts to get interesting. There is a major plot twist at least every 4 episodes and by about midway through the series the real action starts. Suffice to say that it involves the power of music to revive ones energy through a force that is dubbed "spiritia", Basara's quest to make the entire universe listen to his song, Mylene's own little love triangle with you know who and some alien life forces that have possessed the bodies of the creatures that were designed to destroy the zentraedi and very nearly destroyed the entire galaxy instead. Oh, did I mention that it has one of the most rocking soundtracks I have ever heard? There are six or seven CDs of it you can find (or around 30 to 40 original songs). Of all the other anime I have seen, only the original Bubblegum Crisis compares favourably in this regard.

Irresponsible Captain Tylor:

A good, light-hearted romp with the luckiest, most irresponsible Captain to command a battleship in the war against the Raalgon Empire. Of course, his battleship the Soyokaze ("Gentle Breeze") is crewed by the "scum" of the fleet who just happen to be excellent soldiers despite their bad personal habits (a doctor that is at his best only when drunk for example. Gee, where have I seen that before?). The music is nice, but not really special. Some of the character designs seem suspiciously familiar. Almost like City Hunter or something like that. The plot is great with developments on all fronts in every episode.

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