Happy Boxing Day, once again! (after skipping last year)
So last year I didn't make a "favorite posts" list, partially because I felt that there were too few things to choose from; I want to be forced to make actual decisions regarding this stuff, after all. However, I did mention in the 9th Anniversary piece that I would consider combining two years into a single list, so that's what we'll be doing this time around. The past two years have both been less productive from a sheer quantity perspective, but they were definitely strong contenders for some of the best quality I've delivered, if you allow me to toot my own horn for a microsecond. Therefore, it actually was a bit tricky to whittle down this list to just 12(-ish) entries, and I did want to try to keep things relatively even between 2019 & 2020. The end result is this list weighing more towards this year, but the picks from last year are definitely great, so let's get it on & see what I thought were the best from the past two years!
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| I considered somehow getting all 27 volumes into one image, but that'd be insane, even for Bastard!!. |
With the concept of this year being the blog's last being a factor at the start of this year, though now it certainly isn't, I wanted to cover some subjects that I had planned on doing for literally years. Easily the biggest one for me, personally, was to finally review the entirety of (or at least whatever there is of it) Kazushi Hagiwara's "heavy metal dark fantasy" Jump manga, Bastard!!. As of this "Part 1" getting posted, it was announced that Tatsuki Fujimoto's Chainsaw Man will be moving from Weekly Shonen Jump to the online service Shonen Jump+, after having finished "Part 1" of its story, and that only reminds me of what happened to Kazushi Hagiwara's late-80s fantasy manga. Much like Fujimoto's work, Hagiwara's Dark Rebel Armies storyline, though still following some of the standards of shonen action manga, featured a wild level of violence & sexuality to it, the likes of which would make one wonder how it even managed to run in the magazine at all, which was aimed at (more or less) young teens. Similar to what's happening now, Hagiwara's manga came to an "end" after the story arc finished, only to wind up being moved to an offshoot, in this case the Shonen Jump Seasonal Specials, which is where the majority of the next arc, Hell's Requiem, was told, & the change in magazine allowed Hagiwara to be even more violent & sexualized than before.
While still running with the Seasonal Specials, Hagiwara then followed that up with Crime & Punishment, a story arc that utterly flipped Bastard!!'s tone & style around completely, implementing more religious & scientific elements into what was originally thought of as pure fantasy; by far, it's Bastard!! at its most ambitious. However, Hagiwara's perfectionist tendencies, originally shown during the Weekly Jump run, would rear their heads once again, resulting in a story arc partially describable as a spiritual precursor to Berserk's Eclipse taking just over four years to tell, over the course of six volumes... And technically wasn't even finished, due to a freak accident that destroyed most of the pre-production work done for what came next. Combined with the Seasonal Specials being cancelled, which brought Bastard!! back to Weekly Jump on an irregular basis, before being moved to seinen magazine Ultra Jump a few years later (which it would then run irregularly in, before going on a decade-long hiatus that's still ongoing), Hagiwara simply decided to implement a giant time skip to tell the final (completed) story arc, The Immoral Laws. Here, Hagiwara went to such an utterly insane level of power being shown that it truly ranks Dark Schneider as one of the most powerful lead characters ever put to page in manga history. To this day, Bastard!! has remained one of my all-time favorite manga ever, and re-experiencing it across these four reviews (& a fifth piece that covered the various spin-offs & adaptations made for it) just re-solidified that feeling all the more so. I wish it were more readily available in English (not to mention "fully" released, but I don't hold that against Viz), because it's much, much more than anyone would expect of it.
That's not to say that Tatsuki Fujimoto will wind up doing anything remotely similar with Chainsaw Man... But you never know. I mean, chainsaws, man.
40 Years of "Chicken" Humanoids, Mindless Robots, & Evil Otto: A Berzerk Retrospective (October 31, 2020)
The yearly Halloween article is a tradition that really came about by accident. I was doing a review for the Kyofu Shinbun Manga DVD in October 2011, and just thought that it'd be appropriate to post it on Halloween, since it's a horror story, and the following year I just happened to post my first Theory Musing piece on Halloween. After that, I just decided to make it a yearly tradition to cover something horror-related (or at least vaguely related to it) for Halloween, and that brings us to this year's entry, which covered the history of Stern Electronics' iconic arcade classic Berzerk, which just happened to also be celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year. While not directly a horror-based game, it was inspired by its creator, the late Alan McNeil, having a dream about fighting a never-ending horde of robots, and the equally iconic character Evil Otto, meant to force players to continually move from one room to another, does feel very similar to slasher flick icons like Michael Meyers & Jason Voorhees. Therefore, I felt that a Berzerk retrospective was a good enough fit for a Halloween article.
And what a blast I had going through the history of this arcade game, it's sequel Frenzy, the various ports released for both games (both official & fan-made), it's influence on future games, the homages paid to it over the decades, and even the official board game made for it that's actually pretty damn good. Berzerk is one of the earliest video games I ever remember playing, via the Atari 2600 port, and it's always had a nostalgic spot in my memories, so it was great to go back & see that it still holds up extremely well, even 40 years after its original release. Unfortunately, I have no idea where the rights to it have wound up, as while Stern Pinball is the technical successor of Stern Electronics, by way of Data East Pinball & Sega Pinball, it's unknown whether the rights to Berzerk & Frenzy actually came with all of that. I'd love to see a modern-day re-imagining of Berzerk, one that sticks to the (accidentally?) nihilistic tone of the arcade original, because this is a classic that more than deserves a fresh coat of paint applied to it.
What puts this retrospective into this list, however, is that just a couple of weeks later this retrospective got shared... by the Video Game History Foundation. Considering that the VGHF's Twitter account shares all manner of articles about gaming history from much more well known sites, or from people that its operators are more familiar with, seeing them share this retrospective from a blog & person who's not anywhere near as well known is such an honor, and it wouldn't even be the fist time! A few weeks later, the VGHF also shared by review of Dragon's Lair 3D (& III), but I just have to side with the first one they felt was worth sharing.
Metropolis vs. Metropolis (September 19, 2019)
The "Vs. Battle" segment is something I thought would come about more often, but wound up being a much rarer thing. While over on the Obscusion B-Side of things (get it?) I go with a much more general "similar things" concept, over on the anime side of things the focus is specifically on a "same name, but totally different" concept, and this has resulted in a very restrictive format, seeing as there was a four-year gap between the last one (Tobira wo Akete vs. Tobira wo Akete), and this one. Much like the multi-part Bastard!! coverage, pitting Fritz Lang's influential 1927 silent film against Rintaro's 2001 anime film inspired by Osamu Tezuka's manga, which itself was inspired by a single still image of Lang's film, was something I had thought up years ago, but didn't actually get to until 2019. I had a vested interest in seeing both movies for a long time, and this was just a great excuse to finally do so.
The end result was easily the closest "Vs. Battle" I ever had, with the first half of the "rounds" (Story, Characters, & Visuals) all ending in draws. Truly, the battle was determined in the second half of rounds (Music, Acting, & Execution), and even then the decisions were generally made on razor-thin margins, showing just how excellent both Lang & Rintaro's films truly are. In the end, the winner was the anime, and mainly due to the sheer difference in age. As of this list, Lang's Metropolis turns 100 years old in just over six years, and though it's a stellar silent film it's still a silent film, which inherently hurts its accessibility to a general audience. Meanwhile, Rintaro's Metropolis only turns 20 next year, and aside from still being one of the most beautiful anime ever put to film, it also comes in multiple languages, making it a much easier film to show off to those unfamiliar with it. If you are a fan of film in general, though, then by all means check out both Metropolis-es, because they are both worthy of the praise they both get.
As for where this leaves the future of the "Vs. Battle" segment, we'll just have to see. I might start allowing for comparison between two takes on the same subject, but even that would have restrictions. I'm not interested in comparing both Hunter x Hunter TV anime series, for example.
Engage Planet Kiss Dum (Demo Disc Vol. 16 & Kiss Dum R) (January 9 & February 4, 2020)
Over the past decade I've covered anime that had their fare share of production hell, like AWOL being so notoriously slow-paced that the original TV version wasn't deemed worthy of home video release in Japan (& an entire episode being excised from the OVA re-cut), Mach Go Go Go: Restart changing its entire modus operandi 2/3 of the way through its run, or Gundoh Musashi's very existence. However, the one that takes the cake would easily be Engage Planet Kiss Dum, which went from being an adaptation of a sci-fi novel to an original work conceived by Yasuchika Nagaoka, only for Nagaoka's "original creator" credit to get removed shortly before the show finally debuted (even though he was still "chief director" & in charge of series composition), and then Nagaoka just up & left the entire production after only the first episode (seemingly for personal/medical reasons), leaving the staff with nothing more than the most basic of concepts to create another 25 episodes out of. The end result was the subject of the 16th volume of Demo Disc at the start of this year, where I covered the first 18 episodes of the original TV version of Kiss Dum. Though I hesitated for literal years to finally watch it, and the end result was highly flawed, I could see the potential it held inside, not to mention experiencing in real-time the panic the writers obviously felt in telling a story from scratch with little given to them.
Of course, I couldn't possibly leave it at that, so I immediately followed up with that Demo Disc volume by literally rewatching the show from the start again. This time, however, it was via Kiss Dum R, the "proper" second try the staff gave where they fixed the animation errors, removed a recap episode early on, & replaced it with a proper final episode to act as an epilogue. The end result was a show that might not have completely salvaged its crash landing after its wheels were fully sabotaged, but I was honestly amazed at how much I didn't hate Kiss Dum when all was said & done after 1.69 watches of the entire show, over the course of about two months. Make no mistake, because Kiss Dum is a very flawed show, one that was screwed over before it even started airing, and then stalled out after just a single episode. Yasuchika Nagaoka was likely going to tell a mech anime about fighting eldritch abominations of Lovecraftian style, but instead the staff wound up going for more of a Guyver-influenced execution, with only the occasional dash of mecha appearing here & there. You will find reviews of Kiss Dum online that outright despise it, and it's very easy to do so, especially if you go into it not realizing that its very conception was cursed, and that it should have simply been cancelled before it even debuted.
Seriously, considering everything that happened to it, Engage Planet Kiss Dum has absolutely no right to be as good as it is, and that's a testament to the passion & effort the staff put forth into salvaging it as well as they possibly could. You don't have to like it, but I think it at least deserves some respect.
Theory Musing: Can (& How Would) You Use Fansubs for an Official Anime Release? (September 2, 2020)
I honestly find it amazing that I've managed to continue doing a Theory Musing article every year ever since 2012, but this year I was actually without any real clue or idea as to what I could ponder & ruminate about... Right until September 1, when ANN broke the news that vintage anime streaming service RetroCrush literally just ripped fansub scripts for the second half of Magical Idol Pastel Yumi, once that show started streaming. It was just the perfect storm of a concept to build off of & create a Theory Musing about, and I managed to get it out the very next day, if only in an attempt to ride off of the recency of the news story. What RetroCrush did was not the first of its kind, as AN Entertainment did the same for its release of Risky/Safety in the 00s, but it was most definitely NOT done with the permission of the fansub group that created the fan translation of Pastel Yumi. However, did RetroCrush even need to contact the fansub group in the first place, and what's really wrong with just using a fansub translation, anyway?
To go over this concept, I split this article up across four sections. I went over why fan productions just aren't used for official releases in general, when they actually have been used (especially in the video gaming world), how one could go about doing this, & how compensation might work out. The end result was, I feel, a good & general overview about the subject & how, though it might be useful in very specific situations (i.e. really old anime in which the original scripts are either non-existent or are too degraded to be useful), it can be more of a hassle than some might think it'd be. At the very least, J-Novel Club founder Sam Pinansky quickly stated that he'd more than willing to help RetroCrush out by getting them in touch with the people who translated the first half of Pastel Yumi for Anime Sols, and he commented on my article about how he brought in fan translators to re-edit their light novel translations for official release by J-Novel Club. In the end, it's not quite as simple a question as you might think, and I hope this year's Theory Musing helped in explaining things about this subject.
Investigating the "Eva Clone" (July 1 & August 1, 2019)
Remember when Netflix announced that it'd be streaming seminal anime classic Neon Genesis Evangelion, complete with a brand new English dub... And then it became just another Netflix offering not too long after it went up in mid-2019? Pepperidge Farm remembers, and I remember when I took advantage of that initial "This is a big deal!" momentum & covered yet another subject that I had in mind for years: The "Eva Clone". Much like how the (eventual) success of Mobile Suit Gundam resulted in a boom of war story mech anime during the 80s, Eva's success in the mid-90s eventually lead to other notable anime creators coming up with their own takes on its style. Some were very blatantly influenced by Hideaki Anno's creation, while others simply took advantage of the new storytelling opportunities Anno opened the floodgates to. Regardless, the 12 anime I covered in this general two-part investigation (i.e. I only looked at the first 5-6 episodes so as to get a general feel, though there were two short OVAs that were simply fully watched) were all deemed "Eva Clones" at some point or another, so I felt that it was worth checking out just how accurate such a moniker was for them.
Yoshiyuki Tomino's Brain Powerd, though originally conceived of prior to Eva, was doomed to comparison upon its debut (& there are some minor similarities), something that Tomino quickly resigned himself to. Takeshi Doi's Super Mobile Legend Dinagiga, however, was much more accurate to that moniker, though it was also about just as much a "clone" of another Anno work, Gunbuster. Ryosuke Takahashi's Gasaraki was definitely an example of another creator simply using new opportunities to tell a different type of story, so while not a direct "clone" it still owes its very existence to Eva. In comparison, Masaki Kajishima's Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure was more of something taking visual cues from Anno's creation, thereby making it look like a "clone", though story-wise it wasn't quite that. Masami Obari's Platinumhugen Ordian is really the first "true clone" of the bunch, though even that wound up going in its own direction rather quickly, but it no doubt was directly influenced in more than just aesthetics. Part 1 ended with Kazumi Fujita's Sousei Seiki De:Vadasy... which is literally the poster child for the "Eva Clone" moniker, and shows absolutely no shame in being such.
Kazuyoshi Katayama's Argento Soma is probably the most unique "clone" of them all, effectively making Gendou Ikari the main character, but putting him into a plot that's a mix of Frankenstein, War of the Worlds, & The Count of Monte Cristo. After that, Yutaka Izubuchi's RahXephon wound up becoming the most widely known "Eva Clone" of them all, mainly due to the fact that there was a much smaller time between Anno & Izubuchi's works in terms of English releases than there was in Japan. But while there's no doubt that Izubuchi was influenced by what Anno had done (plus a whole ton of Brave Raideen), RahXephon more than managed to carve its own identity early on. Xebec & Tow Ubukata's Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor is notable in that it's the first "clone" to become a franchise in its own right, with new productions still being made to this day. Shiro Tsunashima's Jinki: Extend is the only one in this investigation to originate as a manga, and though it does start similarly to Eva for its set up, it still plays around with its own twists (& other mecha homages) to live on its own. Finally, Shoji Kawamori's Genesis of Aquarion and Studio Bones, Dai Sato, & Tomiki Kyoda's Eureka Seven together act as a perfect cap to this investigation, as both offer much more hopeful & encouraging stories, almost in direct antagony to the more dour & depressing tone of Eva; also, yes, "antagony" is indeed a word that I just guessed was real & actually is. Overall, this was easily one of the most time-intensive things I've ever done for the blog (seriously, I mainlined roughly 60 episodes of 12 different anime in roughly two months), but it was a great look at a moniker that's often thrown out, but never really given much actual thought towards.
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And that brings us to the end of Part 1. Check back just before the start of 2021 for Part 2, as I go over what else from the past two years really clicked with me the most.
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