Thursday, November 29, 2007

Kimba the White Lion

Based on the manga Jungle Taitei by Osamu Tezuka, this series really effected me as a child. Tezuka’s stories are so unique and powerful. This series was totally ripped off by Disney as the Lion King, which they still deny to this day. Disney sues anyone who remotely does anything like their characters, but apparently have no problem stealing ideas from the Japanese.

Here’s part one of the original Japanese pilot with subtitles. Follow the links for the rest. 

Marine Boy

Besides Astro Boy, Kimba and Johnny Quest, this was one of my favorite cartoons of my childhood. It’s the only ocean based superhero I ever got into. Aquaman and Namor didn’t do much for me. On reflection, I think I know why now. If I ever got the chance to do one of those characters, I think I could make them interesting. 

Back in the Day

Here are a few pictures from the mid 1980s when I was a big anime fan and booster of manga. The first two pictures are of me. The one with the lady was taken at one of the Baycons where I ran an anime room. The people you see in the last pictures where at a meeting in my house in Santa Rosa, California, where I was showing anime about once a month. We would get between 10 and 20 people from the entire Bay Area to drive up, from as far away as Dublin, California. One of the attendees (not pictured) was Joe Rosas, who became a major Marvel Comics colorist a few years later (bust is out of the business now, like so many others). Most of the people would just hang out and copy my tapes, so they were usually in the other rooms doing dubs. Trading shows was a popular activity in anime fandom.

Back then I was very active in spreading the word about anime and manga because I felt it was good stuff that fans of science fiction movies would appreciate of they gave it a chance. I also wanted to see Hollywood pick up on it and bring a lot of it here so we could have quality, translated copies. It took years, but my wish came true. Though not exactly like I wanted. Many shows I loved still aren’t available on DVD. Many get dubbed badly and edited when they come over here. Fortunately, there are better dubbing jobs these days. Some of the Disney dubs of Miyazaki movies were decent (Castle in the Sky being the exception. Horrible casting choices except Cloris Leachman). I was pushing hard as a fan to get this stuff notices, so I showed it to people in Hollywood and comics. I actually got meetings with a couple TV execs. One at the WB when it was starting. But they went nowhere like most Hollywood meetings.

Still, I am glad to see Anime has taken off. It’s just a shame that the business in Japan has slid from where it was in the 80s. But it’s nice to see so many anime titles available in video stores. There’s even an Anime Network now.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Oddest Campaign Video

Mike Gravel must have really enjoyed the 60s.

[via Green Mountain Politics]

Astroboy

This is the show that started my love of anime. Astroboy came out in 1963 as a TV cartoon, but started earlier as a comic by Osamu Tezuka. Like some kids today adore Spongebob Squarepants, I was crazy about this cartoon when I was a tyke. You can see it’s a lot more violent than today’s shows. But I would rather have my kids watch something about a heroic character than a show about an idiot.

They started the censorship of violence in cartoons in the 60s and I hated it with a passion. That censorship got me on the path to being a libertarian. 

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

19 Great 80s Anime Shows

I confess that I was once a hardcore anime fan, long before most people in the US even knew what that was. In fact, I did one of the first convention anime rooms at BayCon ‘83 in San Jose. At lot of people at that con didn’t know what to make of it, but it was popular. Even though most of the videos were in Japanese. Many without subtitles, even. The next year I had Toren Smith helping me and we did a kick ass program book. The following year, Toren took it over and I wrote parts of the guide.

I even held anime fan club (CFO) meetings in my house for awhile. Back then anime fans often had to watch the films in Japanese without subtitles. Something most fans today would probably find too daunting. But it forced us to learn some Japanese. I even took two courses with Toren at the local junior college.

What appealed to me about anime was it didn’t talk down to the audience. It respected their intelligence. And it generally wasn’t juvenile unless the show was meant to be juvenile.

So anyway, here’s a list of some of my favorite anime TV shows. I’ll do a list of movies later.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Probably the godfather of all giant robot series. It spawned many sequels. It was a very intelligent, hard science action series about an interplanetary war in the solar system when humans were evolving into “new types”. The nominal villain Char was the most popular character.

Lupin III I talked about this series in a previous post. I mainly love the idea of the series and the characters. It wasn’t always good, but they Miyazaki episodes and a few others are golden.

Future Boy Conan Hayao Miyazaki did three TV series. This is the second one. A fantastic serialized story which was probably ripped off by Waterworld. In the future the world is covered with water except for islands here and there. A tyrannical civilization has kidnapped a young princess and a brave boy named Conan is trying to save her. It’s similar to Miyazaki’s movie Laputa (aka Castle in the Sky).

Tomorrow’s Joe This is based on a popular 70s manga about a professional boxer from the slums who fights his way to the world welterweight championship. Along the way he has a series of personal trials. It’s kind of a soap opera and was probably inspired by Rocky, but may have preceded it. It goes a lot farther than Rocky and is a lot darker at times. It’s very powerful stuff.

Space Cruiser Yamato One of the most successful anime series ever. An edited version was shown in the states as Starblazers. It’s a great space opera about and interstellar war where the Earth was losing until they turn the remains of the WWII Japanese ship Yamato into a space cruiser. There were sequels and many movies.

Space Adventure Cobra I talked about this show in a previous post. Here’s a scene where Cobra battles his nemesis, Crystal Boy, who’s immune to the Psycho-Gun.

Galaxy Express 999: This fanciful oddball series holds a special place in my heart. It’s the story of a boy looking for his parents in a distant future where people travel between the planets on space trains. He is accompanied by a mysterious woman named Matel who may or may not be his mother. The stories are very strange and fantastic. I fell in love with it and the characters. The music is superb. Here’s a montage of scenes from the first movie. Notice the main character, Tetsuro, is a kid wielding a gun. He is seeking revenge for the cyborg who murdered his parents. The idea of a kid going around blasting people is way to radical for the states. That’s one of the reasons I love this series. The Japanese are more concerned with what works and makes sense for the world of the story, and less concerned with satisfying unimaginative censors. The creator of Galaxy Express (and Harlock and Yamato) Leiji Matsumoto grew up in war torn Japan. It left a big impression on him. So the idea of an orphan fending for himself in the ruins is coming from the heart. That’s what makes this story so special.

Cyborg 009: I love the theme to this series which is based on a 1960 comics series by Shotaro Ishinomori, a former apprentice of Osamu Tezuka, the Walt Disney/Jack Kirby of Japan. Ishimori’s art style is very cartoony like Tezukas, and some people might mistake some of his character designs as being racist. But this multi-national cast of characters are anything but cool. It was an inspiration for my first series Espers.

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: This show was incredibly hot when it came out. The earth is invaded by giant humanoid aliens who turn out to be the race that seeded our DNA in ancient times, and have come back. It’s about a love affair between a pilot and a singer who may hold the key to winning the war. It was brought over here and badly edited with some other shows under the name Robotech.

Space Runaway Ideon: I absolutely love the theme song to this show. And the story is very compelling. In a distant future, on a distant planet, a group of scientists are unearthing artifacts from an ancient alien culture when they are attacked by the army of another planet. They take refuge in some strange vehicles they unearthed only to find they still work. The vehicles come together to worm a giant robot and they fend off the attack. Now the enemy are determined to find the secret of this robot. The war escalates. And what they find is that the alien culture had evolved because of the technology they possessed. Using the robot changes the scientists and their enemies. It’s a very cool story.

Aura Battler Dunbine is by the same creator of Ideon, Yoshiyuki Tomino. He was also a key writer on Mobile Suit Gundam. He was one of the hottest writers in anime in the 80s. This series is set in a fantasy dimension just outside our own. It’s where souls transition from our world when we die. And there’s a war there, with Giant Robots and magic. It was an interesting mashup of ideas.

Urusei Yatsura This is a hugely popular series that ran for many years and many movies by the great Rumiko Takahashi who also created Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikoku. It’s a hilarious story with zillions of characters. Shows like the Simpsons owe it a huge debt of gratitude for paving the way. It’s about a horny, stupid teenager who manages to get an alien princess to fall in love with him. Hilarity ensues when he starts looking at other women. This is my favorite opening credit theme. There were five in all.

Catseye A preposterous, but engaging show about three sisters who steal famous art pieces that used to belong to their father. One of them dates the cop who is trying to catch them. Loved the opening credits. 

Famous Holmes Another Miyazki classic. Sherlock Holmes characters as dogs. It’s a steam punk adventure for children. Very well done and enjoyable.

Giant Gorg A kind of Japanese Johnny Quest about a boy and his Giant Robot on an island that has risen from the sea and contains an awaking advanced civilization determined to conquer the world. It’s designed and conceived by another great cartoonist, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (Venus Wars).  This series is extremely well written and paced.

Gold Lightan This was a fun series about a kid with a lighter than turned into a giant robot. I have the toy somewhere. It’s kind of a Transformers type story.

Armored Trooper VOTOMS The theme to this show is one of my favorites. I also like the story which is very unusual. It’s set on a polluted war torn world where a soldier battles for the love of an enemy soldier.

Captain Harlock From the same creator of Galaxy Express. This is actually a spin off series about a space pirate who fights injustice. Harlock is a very sucessful character who got two TV series and at least one movie (he also appear in both Galaxy Express films).

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman It was shown in the states in a butchered form as Battle of the Planets. But this superhero series was too violent to be shown in its original form on 80s American TV. A group of five “science ninjas” battle an evil terrorist organization that employs an endless army of bad guys and robots that wreak havoc on the earth. There were three series in all and some OAVs in the 90s which I haven’t seen. It’s considered a classic by fans both in Japan and the US.

I barely scratched the surface of 80s anime shows. But these are some of my favorites. 

The Joys of Socialism

All these socialist paradises just can’t abide by free will. Note to lefties: This is what fascism really looks like. This is where you end up when you go too far to the left.

A North Korean factory boss accused of making international phone calls was executed by a firing squad in front of 150,000 people, it emerged today.

The manager was gunned down in a sports stadium in South Pyongan province after authorities claimed he’d installed 13 in a basement to reach the outside world, the Good Friends aid agency revealed.

And six people were also crushed to death and 34 others injured in an apparent stampede as they left after the execution, it was claimed.

The factory chief’s death last month came as executions in the communist dictatorship began increasing after a seven-year decline in the number of people publicly killed.

North Korea had faced a barrage of international criticism over claims it has executed many innocent people.

Space Adventure: Cobra

This was another favorite show of mine from the early 80s. Based on the comics by Buichi Terasawa (who I later got to know and have dinner with a couple of times), it’s about a space adventurer who often butts heads with the Space Pirates Guild. Assisted by his android pal, Lady, Cobra has a gun grafted to his missing right forearm, called the “Psycho-Gun”. It is fueled by psychic energy and is very powerful. He is able to hide with with a fully functioning realistic arm sleeve.

The music was also by Yuji Ohno, who did that great Lupin III jazz score. I have the original soundtracks on vinyl also.

It was a very cool series but didn’t last too long, unfortunately. Terasawa’s art and storytelling were really excellent. I heard a year or so ago that he had suffered a brain tumor so I don’t know how he’s doing. They did operate on it.

I still have all the episodes on VHS in Japanese. And the movie. 

Creative Bum Signs

Half these dudes look like they are grooming sor Santa gigs in December. 

Food Tube

It’s YouTube for foodies. Lots of video recipes.