Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure: an Evangelion and El-Hazard Smoothie

Do not immediately dismiss a film because it does not contain the excessive nudity of "Ghost in the Shell" or the graphic violence of "Akira". If you have heard good things about a title like the buzz there is for "Neon Genesis Evangelion", the title is not a waste of money.

Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure:
Visions

Dual Parallel Trouble Adventure!
© 1999 AIC / Pioneer
Distributed by 

Genre: sci-fi (includes a great deal of "Tenchi Muyo!" style comedy)
Length: 100 minutes (4 episodes) Audience Age: 13+

Opinion: One of the better cutting edge titles.

This is a review of the DVD release.

From the creator of Tenchi Muyo!

It maybe that I have not had the same amount of cash to spend on overpriced videos. It maybe that the previews on the videos I do buy are not enticing enough. It maybe that I am spending my cash on the recent ECW, FMW, and XPW videos (this is not a wrestling web site, but look for the first company's tapes first). Maybe it is all these reasons, but I am having a problem finding Japanese animated videos to buy. 

Since I got a DVD player for Christmas, I figured it was time to seriously restart my anime collection, but where to start? While flipping through the discs at SunCoast, I found "Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure". If you have seen Neon Genesis Evangelion, you should instantly become a giant robot fan, and Dual! has them. The disc also had a sticker on its wrapping which boast that it was "From the creators of Tenchi Muyo!" (specifically, writer Masaki Kajishima), and I am a big Tenchi fan. So far this anime was irresistible from this buyer's standpoint.

It would seem to be just an ordinary day in Tokyo, but that is not the case for Kazuki. For him, he has to continue to question his sanity as he constantly sees visions of giant robots using the city as their battleground. 

Despite these visions ability to drive Kazuki crazy, he has been able to create a popular website from his accounts of these battles. This site even gets repeat hits from the most popular girl in school, Mitsuki, who is so intrigued about the robots that she approaches Kazuki with questions about them. 

After saving Kazuki from a beating by the high school's athletes, Mitsuki (this may not be the correct name; but this is what I have picked up as her name after watching this DVD thrice) takes her to visit her father, an assistant University professor, who is also a huge, possibly larger enthusiast of the boy's visions. Such an enthusiast that he offers Kazuki an explanation for his visual stimuli. 

The professor explains that Kazuki's visions are actually the reality of another dimension that he wants to prove the existence of. Fortunately/Unfortunately, we find out he is correct by accidently sending the main character to the alternate dimesion and in the center of a battle none the less. 

So to solve his even deadlier dilemna, Kazuki must find the professor of this dimension and pray that he is a little more responsible than the one from his dimension.

Purchasing Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure really paid off for me. I think what really made this investment worth while was the series' having a plot premise that was similar to "El-Hazard: The Magnificent World", a series I cannot get enough of.

There just seems to be something captivating about an anime based on the idea of a weird boy becoming a hero in an alternative world which has a large population of girls who have some kind of attraction to him. I guess Masaki Kajishima, the writer of Tenchi Muyo! and this series, really knows how to write toward the stereotypical adolescent male's dreams.

Dual!'s great premise leads to good stories, but none of them are as good as the best of Tenchi Muyo! or El-Hazard: The Magnificent World episodes. Some of the attempts to sympathize with the main character make a few of the episodes a little too sappy, and maybe this type of story does not cross over well with giant robots officianados. Fortunately, this series does not seem like it will allow the robot influence to change the light-hearted characters, so if you do not want to see the dark, bleak atmosphere of Neon Genesis Evangelion, this series will not feature it.

These robots may not be appropriate with their story premise, but man do they look good. Most of the CGI (computer generated image(s)) are integrated well with the traditional animation and also looks great. And even with the CGI being almost outstanding, the regular hand drawn animation is good enough not to be blown away by it, so the efforts of the many animators with their pencils are not wasted. 

Dual! is by no means as funny as El-Hazard: The Magnificent World and Tenchi Muyo, but is unique enough to be enjoyable with its great animation, futuristic giant robot plot, characters with bright personalities, and good use of computer animation. If you dislike the animes that this is similar to, you maybe wasting a couple hours at your job trying to earn enough money to buy this, but as far as I can tell, Dual! is definitely one of the better cutting-edge titles which any audience that is suited to see it can enjoy.

Knights of Ramune: Blast Off...Like Cutey Honey

It is cool that Angelfire is still around. It is also cool that if you look hard enough, you can find most of the GeoCities websites preserved on a server. If only "@Midnight" was still a thing. It is a shame that they will never capitalize on that content.

Angelfire may have kept my post GeoCities/Web Design Certification (icc.edu) site up the past 17 years, but with Yahoo's betrayal, if you have not created an operating system, I am going to put all my eggs in one basket. Thus, I am going to start moving the original AnimeFlow over to the Blogger sphere. So let us get over one repetitive tangent (look at all the It and I) and getting into repeating my earliest critical works.

Knights of Ramune: Blast Off

'Knights of Ramune: Blast Off' (English version)
© 1999 Ashi Productions Co., Ltd. / IDO International Co., Ltd.

VS Knight Ramune & 40 Fresh' (Japanese version)
© 1997 Ashi Productions Co., Ltd

Genre: Sci-Fi (Action themed) Length: 60 minutes (Two TV Episodes) Audience: 16 Up

Opinion: Any anime series that has a adorable slime ball character has some potential.

This is a review of the dubbed VHS release.

Written by Katsumi Hasegawa.

This first two episode volume of Knights of Ramune starts off with our heroines, the two Holy Virgins Cacao and Parfait along with their little slime ball/spiritual advisor Piqu, being sent to find the Fourth Warrior Ramune. Their search begins by them landing on a military space craft that is destroying all possible resistance on a nearby planet. Even more shocking, who ever is in charge has captured hundreds of children that they are running experiments on. With all this confusion, one question is clear. Why were they sent to this ship? 

To get rid of some of the confusion, they free all the children and make their escape attempt. Not to say they had an escape plan, but anyone that they had was immediately scrapped when they accidentally get trapped in a giant robot with one of the children. After surviving a close battle, they crash land on the now desolate planet. Our heroines now must make sense of their situation, figure out how to pilot their robot, and tolerate Piqu and their new travel companion, Lemon.

Ever since I finished watching Iria: Zieram the Animation in 1998, I have prevented myself from purchasing Central Park Media (C.P.M.), an anime and manga (Japanese comics) distributor with its two video divisions being U.S. Manga Corps and Software Sculptors. The reason may sound unjust since I have not seen this company release a bad title, but their titles were being frequently shown on the Sci Fi Channel and their preview reel before their videos stunk. 

Fortunately, my little brother loves watching action animes, and by him purchasing the first volume of Records of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight, I found out that C.P.M had changed their preview format from a reel to individual previews. One of these previews featured a catchy theme song and cool animation and it was for Knights of Ramune. After finding out that the writer was Katsumi Hasegawa who also worked on the multiple Slayers series (I later realized that she did not work on Slayers: The Motion Picture, the only Slayers release I was familiar with.), this $25 video cassette became an impulse buy.

Even though I was originally excited about who wrote Knights of Ramune, I failed to recognize that the character designer was Osamu Horiuchi who also worked on the only A.D.V. Films release that has a preview which shows nudity out right, New Cutey Honey. This anime turns out to be what I expected New Cutey Honey to be. Unnecessary nudity galore and a surprisingly large amount of sexual exploitation of women. And people wonder why Japanese Animation has not crossed over to the States.

If you ignore all the exploitation of women, you have an intriguing story with some funny scenes with some very likable characters. I guess any anime series that has a adorable slime ball character has some potential. Also, most technical aspects of the series are very good featuring a cute and unique character design and a very good soundtrack.

If you want something to joke around with the guys about, or if you want to see some strong feminine characters (hopefully that sounds like I have thought about the female visitors) try to find a place where you can rent Knights of Ramune. Acknowledging that most of the nudity is for a comedic purpose and look pass the crude sexual segments with the villainesses, this series shows that Central Park Media always seems to release a good, solid product. Will I buy the next volume of this series? Since I only make $55 a week and I tend to treat myself to movie outings and fast food, buying the second tape is not a top priority compared to viewing other titles.

NOTE TO READER: After looking at several other reviews on the 'Net' for this video cassette, I have discovered that I am one of the kinder critics when it comes to this title. This is probably because I interpret almost everything as some form of comedy while other critics consider it to be unjustified excuses for nudity.

Tenchi Muyo! - Anime's Comedy Standard.

Since the film "Akira" was released, there seems to be a growing interest in Japanese animation which is now more commonly known as ANIME.

This animation form may not be the best because of the commonality among titles of having characters with large eyes and small mouths and the fact that even in the best films/shows, mouth movements only consist of "open" and "closed", but the art that the animation is based on can even surpass the most stunning elements of Disney animated features and more importantly the subject matter is no different than live action films.

The goal of AnimeFlow (my 2002 website that Angelfire still gives life to) is to act as a guide for those who are huge otakus (Japanese term for fans) of anime to what titles they have to see, and to give those who are trying to find great animated entertainment viewing recommendations which may encourage them to give this genre more attention.

Hope you enjoy your visit and if you have any suggestions to improve this site, please send me an e-mail with these ideas.

Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki 8/9

Genre: comedy (could be considered romantic/sci-fi) Length: 60 minutes (2 episodes) Audience Age: 12+ (this is not the Cartoon Network version)

Opinion: Great writing, a cool art style, and very neurotic characters...so far so good.

This is a review of the dubbed, out of print VHS version.

This is one of the most popular titles in all of anime spawning multiple spin off series and films.

Anyone who knows anything about anime knows of "Tenchi Muyo!" It is great to know that high-quality Japanimation can crossover into the mainstream since it is now part of Cartoon Network's Toonami line up. Great writing, a cool art style, and very neurotic characters put this series above the Japanese standby situation of a normal guy in an unusual scenario with three or more unstable women. 

Unfortunately, American producers feel any show that is imported from another country must make sacrifices to become mainstream. I will not even tell you where the producers can stick this idea. Tenchi just is not Tenchi without the sake jokes, the brief comedic nudity scenes, and other jokes that are more or less meant for a PG-13 audience, so if you can afford to, buy at least one of the Tenchi Muyo! videos to see how much better it can be when you have a little more open sense of humor.

In the first episode, Tenchi Misaki's, the series hero, cousin needs a babysitter, so our hero's aunt drops little cousin Taro off at the Misaki residence. Hilarious scenes are bound to occur when four alien girls care for someone who is not potty trained. 

The second episode seems to start out well for Tenchi and company as they are invited back to an inn that Ryoko, space pirate and demoness, destroyed a year ago in a battle with Ayeka, princess of planet Jurai. As it turns out, this trip was not meant to be a weekend holiday when the inn keeper hands them all tools to repair the place. 

The past year for this broken down inn must have been a strange one because it now appears to be haunted, and Tenchi's grandfather seems to know why. That is not the weirdest thing about this trip because Sasami seems to be wandering around the inn in a depressed stupor, but what would a 10 year-old princess have to be depressed about?

To explain why this is not a review of episodes 1 and 2 of the Tenchi Muyo! Collection, these are the first two episodes of the second set of OVAs (original video animation) which were added to the original collection. I thought this would be as good a place to start from. That and at the time I purchased this VHS tape, it was the only cassette that contained two episodes.

The two episodes on this tape have stories that go in some what opposite directions from each other, episode eight with the use of a lot of slap stick and episode nine being a little more dramatic by focusing on Sasami's dilemma. Fortunately, great writing for both episodes make it so neither half hour can be considered the weaker one. Another plus about this series is that the character design is probably the best you will see on the Toonami afternoon line up. As long as you watch the Cartoon Network versions of these episodes, Tenchi Muyo can be enjoyed and viewable by anyone which maybe the most important aspect of this series.

Image from the CG Shrines