The Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman: The Noblest of Multi-Colored Squads

Name: Hironobu Kageyama
Nicknames: "Prince of the Anime/Tokusatsu Song World", "Mr. DBZ", "Kage-chan"
Date of Birth: February 18, 1961
Debut Year: 1977 (as lead singer of LAZY under the name "Michell"), 1981 (solo)
Iconic Song: "Cha-la Head Cha-la" (from Dragon Ball Z)
Catchphrase: "SPARKING!!"

If JAM Project-founder Ichiro Mizuki is the "Aniki/Big Brother" of anime songs/anison, then right behind him is Kageyama. After his time with the band LAZY during the late-70s, Kageyama found his place in life as the singer of songs for tokusatsu & anime, starting with the eponymous opening theme to 1984-1985's Dengeki Sentai Changeman (under the name "KAGE"), followed a few months later with "Star Dust Memory", which was an insert song used in episode 9 of Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross. After doing theme songs for Uchuusen Sagittarius & Transformers: The Headmasters, Kageyama did the opening theme for a shonen anime called Dragon Ball Z... I think I can leave the history at this point, because everyone can guess what happened to the man afterwards. Anyway, this Kageyama-themed anime I've chosen for JAM Project March is one I remember hearing about often back in my early days as an anime fan, and I want to know if it's still as good as I remembering hearing about it.

Created by Kaim Tachibana (Boys Love, Pieces of a Spiral), Tokumu Sentai/The Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman ran in Gakken's Comic Pocke magazine from 1993-1998, lasting nine volumes. Built specifically as a parody of tokusatsu franchises, especially Super Sentai, Tachibana's manga was successful enough to be made into a two-episode OVA in 1996 by Production I.G. In 2000 Media Blasters licensed & released the OVA on VHS & DVD, featuring an English dub done by Coastal Carolina Sound Studios (Baoh, Blue Submarine No. 6, Virtua Fighter), now known simply as Coastal Studios. When I first became a big anime fan ten years ago I remember more "battle-hardened" fans constantly praising this English dub as being one of the few to actually surpass the original Japanese by & large, ala Cowboy Bebop. As the years went on talk of Shinesman died down, but anytime I saw it mentioned again the dub was still being praised; Justin Sevakis even once called it Coastal Carolina's "crowning achievement". Therefore, I wonder, as someone who has never seen it before: Is Shinesman still worthy of being called a good parody, & is the English dub truly better than the original Japanese?

It's JAM Project March at The Land of Obscusion!!!

Though I admittedly try not to make each month "themed" here, I just keep getting ideas that drive me. This month is no different, & that's because of an upcoming con & five guests who will be there...

Meet JAM Project. Created by the legendary Ichiro Mizuki back on July 19, 2000, the Japan Animationsong Makers Project is a supergroup of epic proprotions based around creating music for anime, video game, & tokusatsu productions. Though some of the founding members aren't with the group anymore (Mizuki himself reduced his status as "part-time" in August 2002, Eizou Sakamoto "graduated" in March 2003, & Rica Matsumoto has been on hiatus since April 2008), the five that make up the group are essentially a who's-who of iconic anime songs. JAM made their first North American appearance at Otakon 2008, followed by a live-performance at Baltimore in November 2012, but this month they'll be making their second U.S. con appearance at Anime Boston! Unlike Otakon, though, they won't just be doing a group concert at AB, but rather they'll also be doing a second concert featuring all five members' solo works. Needless to say, I'll be at Anime Boston once again this year... Will you?

With this in mind I feel I just have to celebrate JAM's return to the States by reviewing some obscure anime that were lucky to have the voices of Hironobu Kageyama, Masaaki Endoh, Hiroshi Kitadani, Masami Okui, or Yoshiki Fukuyama behind their theme songs, plus one anime that had a group song. Unlike usual, where I leave list of titles generally unknown, for this month I will reveal all six anime that I'll be reviewing!

Hironobu Kageyama: The Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman
Masaaki Endoh: Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up
Hiroshi Kitadani: Me Gumi no Daigo: Kajiba no Bakayaro
Masami Okui: Ray the Animation
Yoshiki Fukuyama: Buso Renkin
JAM Project: Robonimal Panda-Z: The Robonimation

Not only that, but each day of this month I'll be sharing an obscure anime theme that each present member of JAM Project has sung, plus some from the group as a whole, over at Twitter. As I share each song I'll add it to the list on this post, so keep checking back daily (I'll figure out something for while I'm at AB) if you don't follow me on Twitter (or if you just don't use Twitter in general):

Cipher the Video: It Has "Footloose" In It... All Complaints Are Null & Void!!!

California Crisis: Gun Salvo may definitely be a product of the 80s OVA boom, a.k.a. "The Golden Age of Anime", but even with it's one-of-a-kind visuals it's not one of the downright oddest products to come from this era. No, that title belongs to a short OVA adaptation of a shojo manga that's not just extremely 80s in its style, but also even more America-loving than California Crisis.

Debuting in December of 1984, Cipher by Minako Narita was a true oddity among shojo manga in general, let alone its co-runners in Hakusensha's LaLa magazine. While manga certainly could take place in the United States, Cipher was definitely drawn & written by someone who absolutely loved the country, especially what was going on there during the 80s. In fact, when Jason Thompson covered it in his House of 1000 Manga article, he outright called Cipher "The Most '80s Manga Ever." If anything, though, that sheer foreign-ness of the manga let it live a while in LaLa, with it ending in October of 1990 (right before the 90s would make the 80s look stupid, ala the 80s vs. the 70s, right?).  Astoundingly enough, this manga actually came over to the U.S.! The now-defunct CMX, which was DC Comic's attempt to bring over manga, ended up being a haven for old-school shojo manga, & from late-2005 to early-2008 they released the entire series, at least I think they did; CMX called Volume 11 the "final volume", but in Japan it was 12 volumes. Anyway, in March of 1989 animation studio Magic Bus & Victor Entertainment released Cipher the Video... And a simple description of this OVA just can't do it justice.

Seriously, if you want an actual description as to what Cipher's story is, just read Jason's article, because Cipher the Video doesn't explain it one bit. For a basic idea, it's about twin boys, Cipher & Siva, who are both actors, models, & students, but the two trade off who does the acting/modeling & who goes to school, with everyone thinking that they always see Siva. In turn, this OVA is purposefully done in a "MTV Interview" style (you know, back when the "M" actually stood for "Music"), with music videos happening in between each interview segment that keeps everything tied together. Since it's so completely unlike anything I've ever reviewed I feel it's best to simply cover each portion of this OVA in order. Let's get started...

California Crisis: Gun Salvo: Anime That's Untouchable Like Eliot Ness

Only in the 80s...

Only in the 80s could an anime like California Crisis: Tsuigeki no Hibana (which translates to "Gunfire Pursuit", but everyone likes using "Gun Salvo") be made. The 80s is often referred to as "The Golden Age of Anime", and can agree to that for my own reasons, and California Crisis is proof positive of that term. This was a decade where literally anything could be made into an anime as long as one had an idea, access to an animation studio, & money to spend... And in 1980s Japan money was easy to be had. Now, yes, that means that there's a lot of random OVAs from this decade, many of which are simply average at absolute best, but from a creativity standpoint the 80s OVA boom was that very "Golden Age". This specific production from 1986 represents both the best & the worst of said OVA boom, but it sure has a metric ton of fun doing so.

Noera is a simple man who works a simple job in the San Diego area. One morning on the drive to work he meets up with Marcia, a feisty girl on a motorcycle, before the two get stuck between a car chase between a van & a couple of big rigs. One of the big rigs goes off the cliff, along with Noera & Marcia, and before it explodes Marcia decides to take what was inside the trailer: A large black orb that, when touched by the two, shows a landscape of Death Valley. Marcia insists on going there to solve this mystery, and Noera essentially has no choice in the matter because the two are being chased by the local air force, where Noera's friend Jack Varo works, & some Kremlin agents, both of which want the "Space Mind", a.k.a. the orb Marcia stole.

The Imagawa Chronicles Final Part: Silent Noise

Previously on The Imagawa Chronicles:
"In the end, Shin Mazinger was both Imagawa's greatest success & Imagawa's greatest failure. Yes, Shin Mazinger is highly acclaimed by those who have seen it, but the fact that so few have in fact seen it is proof positive of how 'forgotten' this decade was for Imagawa."

The 00s ended with Imagawa becoming like that of Icarus, reaching for the sun but only getting burned & falling back to the ground. There would be no "Great-hen" for Shin Mazinger and he was seemingly no longer needed or wanted as a director. Therefore, Yasuhiro Imagawa decided to make the beginning of this new decade, the 10s, about something else...

I've mentioned it before, but one consistency of Imagawa's career has been the fact that a number of his works have become more beloved & respected as time has gone on. By the time 2010 came around just about every single anime he had ever worked on had seen release on DVD or even Blu-Ray; Hareluya II BØY, outside of the first episode, still remains VHS & LD-exclusive to this day. Along with that came things like video games, especially the Super Robot Wars Series, which kept some of his directorial work in the minds of anime fans & reminded them of why they enjoyed his work in the first place, or even introduce them to something they had not seen back in the day. For one show in particular this renewed appreciation & celebration allowed Imagawa to do something he had not done before: Retell a story without limitations like episode length or final episode count.