This blog is dedicated to all that I dubbed of the Sci-Fi Channel. Mostly U.S. Manga Corps and Viz dubs, mostly out-of-print. I just hope this post isn't mostly useless. It at least shows their are good Central Park Media titles which is something they tended to fail to do with their previews.
Casshan: The Robot Hunter
The Black King robot has developed an effective way to stop the destruction of the earth's environment. Wipe out the wasteful humans and let the bots run the show. One problem though, BK's creator's son doesn't like the machine wizzin on his dad's dream, and add the fact BK killed his family, he's out for revenge.
Streamline Pictures must have thought just because anime was going to be hip, Casshan would have to make some money. The story becomes ridiculous the farther in it goes, the characters are emotionless, and the action isn't anything to boast about. The animation is good, but with a bad soundtrack. You shouldn't watch this film to get anything from it, but if you have 90 min. to kill, this will literally do it.
Galaxy Express 999
Ten year-old Tetsuro has only one goal, to kill the robot who murdered his mother for sport. Unfortunately, the only way he can do this is to steal a pass to ride the 3 nine train to find him, that is until the mysterious women, Maitel offers him a chance to travel along with her. Now if they can get pass space pirates and other cyborgs our hero might get a chance for vengeance and Maitel may succeed with her mysterious goal.
If you enjoy wild fantasies this is it. The worlds visited are all unique as is all the character art work, especially Maitel. The film does run long after a false climax, but it does work to set up the sequel. It's actually more dark than the description makes it seem. The animation is really good despite one might compare to titles that are 15 to 20 years younger, and the other technical aspects are excellent. Sometimes it runs slow, but its definitely worth seeing.
Adieu Galaxy Express 999
Two years after the first film, robots are now destroying all the humans they can find. Tetsuro is pissed about this because he thought he destroyed their home world. Everything seems hopeless until Maitel calls for him to board 3 nine again without a known reason. This does confuse him especially when there are rumors that Maitel is now the cyborg queen. Again, he doesn't know who he can trust, and just hopes he'll survive the ride.
Not as good as the first film because it lacks in the adventure the first one had. The film still works though with its goals of having more emotion than action. It also does a good job at answering any questions left unknown from the first film. Technically, its as good as the first and you can't expect much improvement in animation in only two years. All in all, it's a worthy end to the tale of 3 nine.
Gall Force: Eternal Story
The biomechanical race (best description I could come up with), the Paranoids, have forced the all female race of the Solnoids to try to escape this war by going to the planet called Chaos. During the battle, a battered Solnoid space craft with a crew of seven leaps to hyperspace before the rest of their fleet leaving them alone to face the Paranoid forces. Now for them to reach Chaos, all must being willing to sacrifice their lives, so that other crew members can reach their sanctuary.
"Epic space battles and heart-wrenching sacrifice characterize this tragic yet inspiring class war drama.", says the add in AnimeNation's 98 catalog. Talk about over blowing something to sell it. Yes there is a hell of a lot of sacrifice. These are the only attempts to try making the audience feel any emotion which gets tiresome after the first two crew members are sacrificed with only 15 (at the most) minutes between them.
I saw the dub, so hopefully this was just a bad English translation of the emotions we were supposed to be feeling, but that is a huge hope. There are some cute scenes, but this has to be the worst written title I've seen. We've seen this story in other incarnations in the media and almost everyone of them has done it better (makes me yearn for Battlestar Galatica: The Motion Picture). As for the space battles, the animation is good, but most of the sound effects for the ships propulsion are stolen from the speeder bike scene in Return of the Jedi. In fact, the sound effects in this film's speeder scenes are the sound effects of the RotJ's unedited and in its entirety. Sacrilege V_V.
This film isn't what I consider to be worthwhile, but there are many aspects that can draw people into seeing it. Personally, I need to wash this film out of my system by watching the Star Wars Trilogy.
Records of the Lodoss War
Six heroes, a knight, an elf, a wizard, a Dwarf, and a priest, go on a quest to prevent a new evil from being born on the continent of Lodoss, an island that was formed after a war between the god of light and the god of darkness.
Not much of a description I know, but if you enjoy RPG's you get the gist of it. The story seems to have a lot of potential, it's just not my cup of tea. The characters are great which does make me want to sample some more of the series. The animation is great, but the soundtrack is horrid, get past that and the title is well worth your time.
Roujin Z
Old people are really crimping the lifestyle of the youth in Japan, but not for much longer. A medical breakthrough has come in the form of a robot that monitors the senior it cares for and does everything for him/her. The film's heroin is upset that they want to replace her care with a machine that has no feeling taking her job, and the fact that her old folk is the test subject makes her want to stop this project and free him. Unfortunately, her attempts seem to give the robot a mind of its own, and we're forced to wonder if being at a nursing home is what the robot was meant for.
The description of this film may not grab you, but it turn out to have a great story which make it worth seeing. It can get ridiculous at some points, but the characters hold the tale together. The animation is unique and the soundtrack works. No, it isn't perfect because there are a lot of unbelievable elements, but is was worth releasing in theaters unlike films like Anastasia (and this is coming from someone who hates to rip into John Cusack films).
Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer
As Ataru's high school is planning for its annual festival, one weird thing keeps occurring. This weird thing is that the same day keeps occurring. When people finally realize this, the world itself seems to be falling to pieces, and everyone is disappearing except our main characters which implies that one of them has a clue about what is happening. When you get down to it, the incompetent Ataru may have to save the day.
This is a cute title, but its extremely deep plot is what keeps you watching. All the characters are fun no matter how ridiculous they can seem. It can get overly confusing is the film's only flaw. As for the technical aspects, its animated like all other Rumiko Takahashi translations.
Vampire Hunter D
The Daughter of werewolf hunter, Doris Rumm, was attacked by the vampire Count Lee, and he is determined to make her his new wife. Her town shuns her, so the only help she can get is from D, a vampire hunter who is half human and half vampire.
I love post Hammer Films vampire flicks, and this is able to stand with the best live action titles. You can tell the age of the film, but the animation still delivers. The story is superb, but some of the action scenes are a little over done. Also the dialogue could have been worked on. The soundtrack is great and it fits the mood of the title. When it comes down to the battle of the half vampires, Blade v. D, the action is excellent in Snipe's film, but if you want an excellent story, keep in mind Blade had a good one, go with D.
Venus Wars
The Ishtar army has conquered the city of IO which puts them in total control of Venus. A group of bikers led by Hiro are fed up with the cities lack to take action, so they decide to take out a heavily armed tank as an act of vengeance. After the very destructive battle, the bikers are taken by the resistance, and to free his friend, Hiro must join these rebels.
The story is like a lot of live action, future worlds at war films, but is written well enough to hold up with the best of them. Unfortunately, to some extent it feels like Akira without the crazy kid. The action is great, but the climax doesn't deliver. It's set up just like Return of the Jedi, but the set up falls apart when we only focus on Hiro v. the dictator.
All the characters are belivable and that is the film's best quality. The worse thing about this film is the 10 minutes of bull sh** at the end. Most of the animation is top notch, but when they try to merge it with some live action backgrounds, it just plain sucks. All other technical qualities are good, and it does have a great soundtrack until the end of the film. Worth watching until the bad guy gets it, then it turns into a crappy music video (the type that wins the viewer's choice of the year award by MTV).
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