Mokuyobi Post - Hyper Doll

Hyper Doll (楽勝!ハイパードール) is a 2-part comedy action OAV series based on the manga of the same name by Ito Shinpei.  The series was originally released is Japan in 1995.

    Mew and Mica are two alien super hero magical girls who are unwittingly sent to Earth to defend it from evil aliens who are trying to invade it.  They pose as normal high school students as their cover and when the bad guys show up they presto-chango into their real personalities and save the day.  Their classmate and hapless friend Akai is the only one who knows their secret identity and tries as hard as he can to make up for their lackadaisical ways to keep them hidden.

    This is a crazed mid 90's style satire on the magical girl genre.  The main characters are complete slackers and sexual vixens.  The comedy comes from the odd aliens they have to battle, the situations they find themselves in and their torment of Akai.  The animation is pretty good for this time period, as to be expected from an OAV.  I was thoroughly entertained with it when it came out, but am not sure how much i would enjoy it these days.  Either way, it was a fun romp and at the price the DVD' are going for online it wouldn't hurt to add it to your collection if you enjoy inane comedies.  The English dub is painful but hilarious at the same time.

   This titles was licensed pretty quickly in North America and while out of print still appears to be readily available.

Mokuyobi Post: Oruchubon Ebichu

Oruchubon Ebichu (おるちゅばんエビちゅ) or Ebichu the Housekeeping Hamster is a 24 episode ecchi comedy series based on the manga of the same name.  The series originally aired in Japan in 1999 as part of the 'Ai no Awa Awa Hour' anime block.

    Ebichu is a talking hamster  kept by an office lady in her late 20's.  The vindictive and cruel office lady (OL) forces the less then brilliant Ebichu to do all of the housework in order to slack off as much as possible.  The OL's good for nothing boyfriend helps in the torment and degradation of the downtrodden rodent.  Yet Ebichu perseveres, seeing her life as a blessing from the imprisonment of the pet shop and dutifully goes about her chores.  To the detriment of Ebichu's safety and happiness she continually causes embarrassment and self reflection for her owner through oblivious ways.

    This is a raunchy and poorly drawn series that has no value other than excellent comedy.  Since I first saw this show it has always been one of my favorite anime comedies.  The humor is snarky and fast paced.  The humor comes from Ebichu knowing but not understanding everything around her and her owner being a sexual and social deviant.  One of the best scenes is Ebichu inadvertently tattling on the OL's boyfriend while she is away on vacation and he stayed at her house.  Ebichu draws and describes a guest that showed up which was her outing the fact the boyfriend screwed a high school girl.  These scenarios continue throughout the entire show and are its bedrock.  The jokes are crude and sexual in nature and the delivery is well done.  Ebichu is constantly punched and kicked with over the top comedic effect for her indiscretions

    Unfortunately this series was never licensed outside of Japan.  If you can find it it’s worth the laugh but I know its hard to come by.

Favorite TV Anime 2000-2014

This is the second part of the comparison to 'old' and 'new' anime and which 'era' has more TV series I have enjoyed.

Asatte no Houkou (2006)
Azumanga Daioh (2002)
Black Lagoon (2006)
Bokusetsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan (2005)
Casshern Sins (2008)
Code Geass (2006)
Cromartie High School (2003)
Death Note (2006)
Denno Coil (2007)
Durarara (2010)
Eden of the East (2009)
Elfen Leid (2004)
Ergo Proxy (2006)
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (2009)
Gag Manga Biyori (2006)
Genshiken (2004)
Ghost in the Shell: SAC (2002)
Gintama (2006)
Heroic Age (2007)
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (2006)
Horo Musuko (2011)
Itazura na Kiss (2008)
Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nocchi Guu (2001)
Jyu Oo Sei (2006)
Kiba (2006)
Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (2003)
Knights of Sidonia (2014)
Koi Kaze (2004)
Lucky Star (2007)
Michiko to Hatchin (2008)
Minami-ke (2007)
Mushishi (2005)
My Little Monster (2011)
NHK ni Yokoso (2006)
Noein (2005)
Ouron High School Host Club (2006)
REC (2006)
Samurai Champloo (2004)
Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei (2007)
School Rumble (2004)
Shin Sekai Yori (2010)
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsu (2006)
To Aru Majutsu no Index (2008)
Usagi Drop (2011)

    That is a list of 45 TV anime series that I really enjoyed which came out between 2000 to the summer of 2014.  Within this time period around 1600 TV anime have been produced and aired in Japan.  Roughly 600 of which have been licensed in North America.  These aren't totally 100% accurate numbers, these are rough estimates based on looking at information online and a little bit of mental digging.  I wonder if the 600 licensed TV shows I picked out of the list is accurate, that seems like a lot.  In the past few years, with the advent of streaming services, the amount of TV shows licensed in North America has climbed steadily.  Not all of them have or probably ever will see some form of disc release.  I have tried my best to weed out duplication of series that run for more than a year.

    I retrospect, I would invalidate, personally, the idea that anime use to be better.  I think that idea comes from two things; nostalgia and age.  The people who say that anime used to be better, myself included, were introduced to anime with series' from those days of yore (80s and 90s).  You always have a special fondness for the titles that got you into being an anime fan.  With that, as time passes and years slip away your fondness for the shows you watched long ago takes on a patina that isn't always accurate.

    To compound the feeling of hatred towards the newer anime is the shear volume that is available.  While, number wise, there are more quality shows, there are also more horrible shows.  Looking at the percentages of what I really enjoyed and thought were good/great TV shows versus the total shows produced in those time periods, the percentage is roughly the same for both; sitting around 2.7%.  So between 1980-1999 I liked roughly 2.7% of the TV anime that was produced and the same is true for 2000-2014.

    In conclusion, its hard to judge based upon personal tastes and preferences.  I don't think anime has gotten any worse or any better over the years.  The thing that is true, is that anime has substantially increased.  In 1985 around 20 new shows aired.  In 2013 almost 150 new shows aired.  There is definitely something for everyone so lets enjoy it as it comes, especially when so much more is readily available thanks to legit and easy to access streaming services!

Favorite TV Anime 1980-1999

Stemming from some discussions regarding the overall perceived quality in anime today compared to the past.  I thought it would be interesting to put together a list of the TV shows I really enjoyed from between 1980-1999 and 2000-2014.   Here are the shows from 1980-1999.

Colorful (1999)
Cowboy Bebop (1997)
Excel Saga (1999)
Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (1984)
Gundam X (1996)
Kare Kano (1998)
Maison Ikkoku (1988)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)
Orochubon Ebi-chu (1999)
Ranma 1/2 (1989)
Rurouni Kenshin (1995)
Serial Experiments Lain (1996)
Tenchi Universe (1995)
The Vision of Escaflowne (1996)

     That is 14 TV shows that I really enjoyed.  In this entire time period there was an estimated 550 or so TV anime produced and aired in Japan.  Out of those around 125 ever saw commercialization in North America in some for or other.

Mokuyobi Post - Dragon Slayer

Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (ドラゴンスレイヤー英雄伝説 王子の旅立ち) is a 2 part fantasy action OVA that was originally released in Japan in 1992.  It is loosely based on the The Legend of Hero's video game series.

    When the Demon King overruns the peaceful kingdom of Faaren, the young prince Siruis is hidden away and raised to be a warrior.  Upon coming of age the prince goes on a rampage of death and destruction to avenge his father and rescue his mother, trying to purge all evil from his once kingdom.

    This inane fantasy action story is hard to follow and almost as scatterbrained and fast paced as Puni Puni Poemy.  The prince moves from utterly destroying one bad guy to the next with barely any logical plot progression.  They essentially made an anime based on playing an RPG and only paying attention for the combat.  While no where being a quality anime, this is surprisingly entertaining, if for nothing more than the breakneck speed.  Doubly entertaining is the English dub featuring a number of voice talents from Tenchi Muyo!  This is in no way shape or form a good show, it is just fun to watch for the relentless action.  Beyond that, not worth the time.

    The OVA was originally released in North America on VHS.  It does not appear this has ever been legitimately released in North America on DVD.

Arakawa Under the Bridge

Arakawa Under the Bridge is a 26 episode comedy based on the manga of the same name by Nakamura Hikaru.  The show was split into two 13 episode seasons and aired in Japan in the Spring and Fall of 2010.

    Ichinomiya Ko is the heir to the Ichinomiya conglomerate, a powerful worldwide company.  The family motto is to never be indebted to anyone.  While crossing a bridge over the Arakawa river in Tokyo a group of youth jump him, strip his pants off and tie them a strut.  As he tries to rescue them a foreign girl offers to help while she is fishing.  He utterly refuses her offer and ends up being saved from drowning by her when the strut falls into the river.  Unable to allow himself to be indebted to her, he forces the woman to come up with a way to pay her back.  She decides he can return the favor by dating her, as she’s never dated anyone before.  He agrees but she demands him to stay close by at all times...he would be OK with this if it wasn’t for the fact she lives on the river bank.  Now he too must live under the bridge until he feels he has satisfied the debt.  Living as a vagrant by the river is the least of his concerns as he discovers he is now part of a small community of eccentrics.  His new girl friend claims to be from Venus, the man who runs the community is a Kappa and their spiritual adviser is a cross dressing mercenary.  Before Ko knows what he got into he's been renamed Recruit and ends up spending more time living under the bridge than he ever intended.  Will he be able to satisfy his debt to the odd woman, can he convince the members of the river community to have common sense and will he ever get back to his normal life of privilege and power?

    This was a pretty out there comedy, as is to be expected from the people behind the anime for Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei.  The animation however is not as good as Zetsubo Sensei, but this doesn’t wholly affect the quality anime.  What are great are the live action parts for the next episode preview segments.  While the animation is lacking, the comedy and characters are well done.  The series wanders around introducing all of the weird people who live in their strangely isolated and protected hobo community in the middle of Tokyo.  Even Ko eventually forgets the strange reality of the bridge dwellers existence and the lack of authority intervention and contact with outsiders.  They are a group of eccentrics who had given up on society to live an oddball life.  The comedy is a cross between Zetsubo Sensei and Cromartie High.  Each episode is split between a series of vignettes that are not always related, the way Azumanga Daioh was done.  This works well with the flow of the comedy as opposed to having a 20 minute plot line to stick to

   There are a few problems I had.  The first 13 episodes were pretty funny but the humor started to slip in the second series, with some segments that were drawn out and boring.  At first the tongue and cheek reference to Fist of the North Star was funny but it kept popping up and lost its charm.  The series also just ended, with nothing really getting resolved.  There were two or three major questions that I felt didn't really get answered.  It feels like they planned to do more but nothing ever panned out.  The show started to turn from insane comedy to romantic comedy in the second half which I feel affected the quality of the humor.  I understand the reason that direction was taken but it became too much of a focal point.

    Either way, this is fun series that is less serious than Zetsubo Sensei.  It focuses on analyzing human relations and people’s sense of place in society with a sharp tongue and a crazed wit.  If you liked Zetsubo you will like this series to, it’s filled with crazy. 

    The series is available in North America on DVD and BluRay as well as streaming.  The manga, which is ongoing, is not available however, nor is the live action film.

Summer Season - First Blush part 3 (final)

This new season has presented an inordinate number of entertaining shows for me.  Here are the last few rounding everything out.

Shin Strange+(真ストレンジ・プラス ):  This is the continuation of the original Strange+ gag anime which aired in in the beginning of 2014.  The first episode of the 2nd season begins b actually explaining whats going on, and promptly breaking the 3rd wall to criticize taking so long to do so.

    This is a stupid and useless anime, but it's fun to watch.  At 3 minutes or so per episode you're not wasting any time really!!  Fun to have it back.

 Tokyo ESP(東京ESP):  Set in an alternate world were people with psychic powers exist.  A group of ESPers decide to forcibly take Tokyo hostage in order to realize their global ambitions.  The government must scramble anti-ESP forces to combat their terrifying powers.  At the same time average citizens are hoping for the return of a mysterious girl with powers to once again fight against ESPers who use their powers for their own ambitions..

    This doesn't look half bad.  As long as they keep it fresh and come up with interesting abilities it could be preyty good.  Something tells me its just going to be a run of the mill evil super power versus good super power while the normals look on powerless to do anything type of story though.  Its started off with the the played out, we are superior human beings storyline, so I actually have no hopes for this being new and exciting.

Zankyo no Terror(残響のテロル): Two resourceful and creative brothers decide to shake the world up by beginning a reign of terror in Tokyo.  Their motives are unknown and hints of a less then loving past seems to be driving them.

    The newest series by Shinichiro Watanabe breaks away from his general style.  This is a straight up serious drama that looks to be a quality detective versus bad guy story.  I'm pretty excited for this and can't wait for more.  The opening sequence alone, while highly unrealistic, was well done...like something out if a James Bond film.  Its also great to see a less kids glove approach to something closely resembling the fall of the World Trade Center towers.  Thank you for not letting that unfortunate event prevent you from exploring a similar event in fiction.

That should wrap it up for all of the new shows I remotely care about for the Summer season.  There is a fair amount of titles that seem promising and entertaining, for a change of pace!  There is one left of of this list because I have not been unable to track it down.  Nyanpuku Nyrauma.

Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo (サムライチャンプルー) is a 26 episode alternate history action comedy by Shinichiro Watanabe.  The series originally aired in Japan between 2004 and 2005.

    Fuu is a girl of no notable position in society.  She ends up recruiting two odd ball men; Mugen, a disillusioned swordsman and Jin, a stoic ronin, in order to track down a samurai from her past who smells like sunflowers.  Their adventures across an alternate version of Tokugawa Japan leads them to confrontations with graffiti artists, eating competition and ninja baseball.  Their mission is vague and they wander around the country trying to pick up any clues for the mysterious man from Fuu's past, all a long developing a bond with each other.

    This is a fun and entertaining romp which tosses the world of feudel Japan on its head.  Heavy hip hop and modern urban influences and references abound.  The humor is quick and smart.  The animation is well done with entertaining and creative direction.  The majority of the series is not really series, even when the subject matter is.  This changes as the show comes to a close, the humor takes a bit of a back seat and the drama steps in.  The series did seem to end on a rapid note without much leading to the conclusion until the last few episodes.  The majority of the show is the characters wandering around aimlessly from place to place only snatches of information to the answers they seek.  For an overall plot this show is lacking in effectiveness and may have been better off not having much of a central plot like Cowboy Bebop was.  Either way this was a fun and entertaining series that continued the quality humor and action combination found in Cowboy Bebop.

    This series is readily available in North America on DVD.  It was aired shortly after its Japanese broadcast on Cartoon Network as well.

Final Kimi no Iru Machi OAV

The final OAV for Kimi no Iru Machi (君のいる町) was packaged with the second to last tankobon for the manga.  This one is different from both the original OAV and he short TV anime as it tells a completely new story related to the manga.


The final OAV is done from the view point of both Eba sisters, Yuzuki and Rin.  It takes place in the time period when Haruto and Yuzuki have broken up due to the strain of continuing their long distance relationship while Haruto is working away from Tokyo.  We find Yuzuki, on the path to being an old maid, teaching her students poetry.  Through the poetry she works to try and console a student who finds herself in a similar situation Yuzuki was once in; a love triangle involving someone with a terminal illness.  At the same time Rin is having conflicting emotions relating to a senior employee she works with at a marketing firm.  Both women have to figure out if they can be true to themselves and act like they want to when they haven't always been honest and forthright with their actions before.

    With all the hate I spew on KNIM, and it does degenerate a lot throughout its looong run to recycled and pandered bullshit, this final OAV was really well done and offered a fresh vantage point to the entire series.  It made me re-imagine the series in a new way.  I think it could have been a really well done series if it had followed the feel and idea of this OAV, from view point of Yuzuki instead of Haruto.  Unfortunately in order to understand what’s going on in this OAV you would of have to have, at a minimum, watched the anime then picked up the manga from that point and read it until the end, which still seems like a waste of my time, even though you skip out on 80 or so chapters with the anime.  It made me think in what way the entire story could have been better.  So here it goes.

    Take the way they crafted flash backs into the anime to fill in the gaps left by skipping the first 80 or so chapters of the manga.  Flesh out the important points of the entire series, cutting out whole arcs that tended to be useless.  Essentially every single throw away female character that shows up for a small arch as a point of drama between Haruto and Yuzuki when they are adults can be removed.  Like the overtly sexual next door neighbor, the college student/manga artist and the girl who was competing with Haruto in the hunt for employment.   You can cut out the continuous back and forth between Nanami and Haruto in the first half of the manga, some of that was just a waste of time as the original point was already in place with their relationship and only needs to be visited once or twice.  Do the entire thing from Yuzuki's perspective instead of Haruto's.  Have her internal dialog be a center piece.  I think this way you build a more solid drama dealing with her feelings as opposed to Haruto's incessant indecision and waffling.

    This could either be done as a feature length film or a short TV/OVA series and could be really interesting and mature.  But, I understand that KNIM was designed for the adolescent male audience and therefore the story was driven from their point of view.  But with this last OVA we saw that Seo-sensei is capable of a well done and mature romantic drama.

Mokuyobi Post - Rurouni Kenshin

Ruroini Kenshin is a historical shonen action series based on the manga of the same name by Nobuhiro Watsuki.  The anime ran for 95 episodes and aired in Japan between 1996 and 1998.

    Himura Kenshin is a ronin of sorts in the world after the samurai.  10 years have passed since the Boshin War which toppled the Tokugawa Shogunate and restored the power of the Emperor.  Since the end of the Shogunate all samurai were stripped of their power and public displays of weapons were outlawed.  The easy going Kenshin carries a specially made katana that has a reversed blade, which is not designed for combat, allowing him to have it.  He ends up in Tokyo and meets the young owner of a kendo dojo, Kaoru Kamiya.  He ends up helping her fend off some unwanted trouble and decides to room at there for the time being.  In time Himura draws to the dojo a good hearted thug, a street kid and a doctor with demons.  Each person in the group has secrets and troubling pasts that they are trying to amend for.  When Kenshin's participation in the Boshin War as a brutal and notorious assassin begins to catch up with him his new friends are faced with increasing danger.  Can Kenshin keep his friends safe while reconciling his past and maintaining his vow of peace?

    Having not gotten into Dragon Ball Z, this was my first major exposure to the shonen action genre.  I enjoyed many aspects of this show, particularly the historical references, including many of the characters being based on real people from that time.  What I didn't like was the shonen action pattern of fight, get beat, train, fight again, etc etc.  It's tiring...but you also get sucked into it, like it’s a drug.  Anyways, I did enjoy the series, at least the first half, leading up to and dealing with the Shishi-o arc.  After that it started to flounder around a bit and when no central plot seemed to take shape I quickly lost interest.  I did enjoy getting wrapped up in the increasingly dramatic fights, but man, when a battle lasts for 5 episodes...fatigue sets in pretty quick.  Little did anyone know what was in store for shonen action series' until One Piece showed up and blew that kind of monotony out of the water

   I digress.  I enjoyed the series, up until it started to flounder after the Shishi-o saga.  But the last two seasons did give me an eye into Japans historical love of Christianity.   This, by know, is a classic and epically loved anime.  What the series did though was pave the way for the masterful 4 part OAV that told Kenshin's time during the war and showed him being a cold hearted assassin.  So for all the faults of the series, the OAV's more than made up for that.  Also 2 or 3 less than stellar movies came out of it and there is a live action movie currently in the works in Japan (2014).

    So get your shonen adventure game on and learn a little bit of Japanese history in the process.