Before he was undereducated, undermedicated, and not nearly as cynical, Russ was a Teenage Otaku. With the demise of Yahoo!Geocities, so many opinions will be lost, namely his. Where else are you going to go for a fanboy's approach to anime and find the rare MIDI's the otakus crave.
Am I crazy for
entertaining the concept of reinventing the "Star Wars" trilogy?
Trekkies gave into J.J. Abrams's concept and ended up embracing it, and
the flaws of Lucas's scripts are quite prevalent.
Blasphemy. Well, we would all like to reboot the "Saga". No one can deny that, but
when it comes to near perfection (with the exception of "Return of the
Jedi"), why bother?
It
is because we are starved for greatness and we will take our chances.
That is why Hideaki Anno's reboot of "Evangelion" captured the world of
anime's attention.
Shinji
Ikari has been called to Tokyo-3 by his neglectful father Gendo. When
he arrives, the city is under a military state of emergency and a battle
with a giant monster ensues. After he is rescued by his chaperone, Lt.
Col. Misato Katsuragi, he his escorted to Nerv's headquarters to find
out his father's expectations. The primary one of these is for this 14
year-old to pilot a giant robot called Evangelion Unit 01 to defeat the
monster.
Should
he fail, humanity is lost. But not being able to appreciate his own
existence, why should Shinji care about the fate of mankind?
"Evangelion
1.01" is nearly identical in character design to the original
television show, but it is far more than just a special edition of the
first six episodes. This is a more concise version of the
"Evangelion" story with an atmosphere that is more fitting of the dark
conclusions of the initial series.
All
of the mecha and kaiju have been visually upgraded and the theatrical
budge is evident. Since budget held back the production quality of the
first series, fans should definitely appreciate the upgrades. That is
provided that they can get past the first two acts of the story being
exactly like the first four episodes.
It
can be frustrating that the "Rebuild of Evangelion's" story does not begin
until act three, especially since the comic interactions between Shinji
and the supporting cast are all but eliminated. The charm and optimism
are removed, so those who did not appreciate the previous two endings
that Anno had provided us, they may be left upset.
Those
frustrations are worth enduring for the brilliant third act. The new
vision and hints of what is coming up left me salivating for the film's
sequel. On top of that, the action and drama sequences are greater than
anything presented in the first half of the television series.
"Evangelion
1.01" is a great experience that promises even more to come. It
provides incite into Anno's true vision that was confined to the
restraints of 90's television. It is a darker journey, but well worth
enduring for the reward of a new future for the franchise.
Imagine We Still Had VHS: "Cat Planet Cuties" and the Curse of Too Much Physical Media
*Blog post started on February 19, 2021.
Trying to optimize my Twitter feeds (@maineventzombie, @catbusruss, @russthebus)
yesterday has put me a day behind in terms of writing. What is the
point of staying up late for content if it is not fresh in your mind the
next day? There is a chance that the thoughts that ruined your original
intentions bleed over into the next day. When you are obsessive
compulsive like me, if one thing is optimized, all must be optimized.
That
can kill some time at the day job. I may be going through my blogs to
make sure that forwarding the reader on to my different blogs is not
that tasking on the eyes. In other words, the reader maybe frustrated
with reading through have a screen of text to be reintroduced to the
same text again when they click on the "Check out..." link. Some further
editing
is definitely needed.
As
for my Wednesday content search, it is a good thing that it was an
anime television series. I got home from work, practiced some self care,
and made dinner and watched the "NBC News Nightly News" from my DVR.
With no wrestling on Thursday (I would say the best day for AEW's next
program, but after Dynamite, everything is down hill to BTE on Monday.),
it is the perfect day to binge the streaming services or watch those
series you impulsively buy on DVD.
When
it comes to streaming, I have two hours to catch up on "WandaVision".
If WWE does something offensive to my taste on Sunday, the real
superheroes can take their place. Which reminds me to cancel the WWE
Network for the last time (There is no point to pay $9.99 for 17 days
when it will be on Peacock on the 18th). Sorry NXT UK.
When
it comes to DVDs, I can obviously make any night a wrestling night in
my household, but there are some TV shows that I just have to own. This
seemingly means half of post "Game of Thrones" HBO series ("Watchmen"
and "Westworld" tell the audience that you need the special features)
and what ever affordable anime series I can grab at Disc Replay or Best
Buy. There definitely not as many of those.
I
have considered getting Crunchyroll or Funimation subscriptions, but
Shudder is definitely the greater priority. It might also just be the
hunter/collector in me who does not want to have everything at my finger
tips. My "Speed Grapher" collection might be the pride of my
2000's/2010's collection. To get all the episodes on four-episode DVD's,
the extra $100 spent was worth it. Truthfully, Ebay allowed me to
make that hit a lot less.
Not
being an anime streamer may also be a need not to develop another
hobby. I know there is quite the Japanese animation lineup on Netflix,
but I am starting to ponder if that service is worth maintaining. There
are some great comedy specials, but again, I do not need the hobby.
Especially when I need those sub two-hour time slots for NinetyForChill.com - The Podcast.
They may have one series a year that is worth subscribing for. Is each
series worth 15 bucks? How do I tell all those using my info that I am
cutting it off?
It
all comes down to having too much physical media. Yes, there are
special features, but what is the point, aside from Steelbooks? I say
physical media allows us to be of more critical minds. There are no
worries of "Available till" messages, so when you watch them, you can
take your time and find out the answers to why something does or does
not work.
You
can claim that can be done with streaming services, but I have yet to
find a remote control that functions as well as those of a physical
media player. Personally, the more buttons, the better. Of course there
are special remotes, but you can usually buy at least two DVDs for the
price of one of those.
Ironically,
anime rarely has those kind of expansive extras to warrant a physical
copy. But does "Cat Planet Cuties" need that when I could grab it for
$10 bucks? I could not pass up something catcentric at that price. It is
still a gamble because it is an anime. This is an anime with an American
title that implies loads of fan service.
Fan service is best kept as an implication like the promises at the end of episodes of "Evangelion" or "Blue Seed". As a series, I have seen that backfire so many times like "Agent AIKa" and "Knights of Ramune".
"I
am coming to drop by." That is the first extra-terrestrial message that
humanity has received. It is not necessarily ominous, but the Japanese
Self Defense Force is still on edge since the object they are tracking
seems to be eying Okinawa as a landing zone. There is an incident of a
smuggler's ship blowing up, but otherwise all was quiet the night of the
message.
The
next afternoon seems like any other. There is a celebration for Kio's
late grandfather going on, but the most stress that could lead to would
be Kio's uncle pushing him to flirt with the cosplay girl who just
randomly showed up. Showing immediate concern for the confused stranger,
Eris, the sixteen year-old ends up getting black out drunk when he
consumes the booze that the uncle had meant for the new girl. Fortunately for Kio,
Eris is quite caring and is able to walk him home at his uncle's
behest.
The
next morning, Kio awakens to a half-dressed Eris being curled up by his
side. This leaves him immediately startled and Eris further confused.
Before she can offer an explanation, Kio's neighbors Manami and Maki
stop by to check up on him and inquire about the girl they presume he
took home to fulfill some furry fantasies. Eris reveals to them and
proves by letting the two pet her tails and ears that she is an alien
from the planet Catia. She is on a recon mission to hopefully establish
diplomatic relations with Earth, a planet that may lag in technology, but
none the less, is very similar culturally to her home world.
With
everything explained and established on Eris's end, all should be
alright provided the girls do not blab about it. Well, they are not
going to go public with it, but that is because they are both covert
operatives. Manami has aspirations to join the CIA, so bringing in an
alien should secure her a spot.
Maki
is a part of the Beautiful Contract, a secret society that is looking
to ensure that first contact with space beings will be a magnificent moment in
history. To find out that the cosplay ideal is what the superior
lifeforms look like does not sit well with them. They intend to
eliminate her to prevent the embarrassment.
On
top of these two agencies, another one of Kio's friends has been
instructed to rid earth of Eris. The shy Aoi is a Japanese immigration
agent who specializes in eliminating any threat to Japan. This all
sounds like too much for Kio to handle, but Eris has an army of cute
helper droids that can carry out almost any command. She is more
concerned about figuring out how humans operate especially Kio. It is
about time for her first mating season and after seeing some of the
manga under her host's bed, she has some ideas that Kio is probably far
from ready for.
"Cat
Planet Cuties" comes across as a refined "Excel Saga". "Excel Saga" was
all about making fun of all of the tropes associated with anime making
every episode its own entity. This cat-girl anime focuses on one trope
and builds a 12-episode narrative around it. If you are not looking to
laugh at all types of anime but want a ridiculous premise, "Cat Planet
Cuties" will treat you a lot better than the abrasive nature of a
straight up parody like "Excel Saga".
This
anime is very well produced. I personally prefer to have my colors a
little more subdued as if the project was a manga with motion,
but for a bright and loud comedy, you cannot complain about it popping
out of the screen at you. Along with a very versatile soundtrack, the
premise may have just sounded too nuts for Funimation to talk Cartoon
Network into airing it on our shores.
What
I really liked about "Cat Planet Cuties", aside from the obvious (six
cat tats and counting), is that the storytelling is very similar to one
of my favorite anime franchises, "El Hazard".
I suppose my comparison to "El Hazard" speaks to how I loved that
P-Anime (Pioneer produced Anime from the 90's) more than the better
known "Tenchi Muyo!"
That title is more appropriate to compare it to since this is a story
about an alien entering a teenage boy's life instead of the protagonist
being placed in an alien world. Either way, the story revolves around
our hero as all the girls for the most part hide their infatuation with
him. Either way, for a narcissistic boy, it is my dream (and a really
weird one at that when you smoke a bowl before bed.).
As
for the fan service fears, the dirty minds of the audience are amused
with near tongue-baths and accidental boob grabs, but it does not
dominate any elements of the story. The series is nudity-free through
the first five episodes, with the exception of the third. In that
episode, that is all played up for laughs instead of "Ramune" and "AIKa"
who wants the viewer leering at the screen the entire series.
The
best homage to fans are through the peripheral elements of Eris. She
attacks with a mallet (like Harley Quinn) and her assistant droids
gradually become chibi-cat tributes to other famous characters (samurai,
even a Hong Kong gunfighter...spoiler for episodes 4 and 5). This
series's humor is not breaking new ground, but it is an ode to the
serieses that I would pay $25 per 1-hour dubbed tape in the 90's.
"Cat
Planet Cuties" shows how important it is too feature relatable and
likable characters. When you have those, any premise can be translated
into entertainment. After three (or five) episodes, this series has done
no wrong. If you can create a series based around cats that is
reminiscent of the best comedies of the 90's, any anime fan should be
pleased with purchase.
It looks like we have made it. My Blue Snowball microphone, a Zoom meeting room, and Audacity open source, cross-platform audio editor has
allowed me to produce my first true podcast. If anyone is interested, I
do have an old assignment from a 2009 ICC mass media class that
elaborates on my liberal leanings and how they are necessary for
colleges to truly benefit their students, but I do not know if you want
to perceive me as even being more pretentious.
Ally Higgins from AllysAccessoriesShop comes
on and does her best to express her affection for anime, an animation
style she was introduced to during our three and three-quarter year long
relationship. We started with Studio Ghibli's classics like "My
Neighbor Totoro", "Porco Rosso", and "The Cat Returns" and move on to
the flicks where they just drew too many pictures. Makoto Shinkai's latest releases get some love and we find out Ally's surprising love for Mamoro Hosoda's library.
Please
pardon our little asides about her recent COVID-19 related quarantine,
the discovery that her current significant other is a mark, the brawls
between my cat Eva and her cat/my roommate Skimble, and the influences
of the podcasts "ID10T" [A Christopher Columbus rant (the director/writer/producer, not the genocidal moron)] and "Marty and Sarah Love Wrestling".
What
can I say except to those podcasts' pets, "What you gonna do when Eva
and Skim run wild on you?" It is not a threat. The furry ones and I just
want to take that over from the Hulkster. I suppose I need to start
using "brother" a lot more.
At
this time, I am looking for a guest for the next episode, and would
love to have the next episode out next Tuesday. Want to talk about sub
97-minute movies? Send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com.
Just to cover all legalities, the opinions expressed do not reflect those of Best Buy, Inc.
