The Land of Obscusion's Twelve Favorite Posts of 2019 & 2020!! Part 2

Looking back at that first part of this (two-year-spanning) "favorite posts" list, I definitely put the massive efforts into it, the stuff that took literal months to fully do. It was a great reminder of the sheer insanity I had put myself through the past two years, and I really have to avoid doing that to myself like; plan smarter, not harder. Regardless, there were still way more "traditional" articles/pieces/posts/etc. over these past two years, so let's end off by looking back at more of these less insane but still cool subjects that I covered. And what better year to start seeing off the hellish year that was 2020 by looking back at the 75th Anniversary of one of the most horrific moments in world history, and the way those who survived it were horribly treated by their own country!

Trust me, things will get more upbeat after this first one.

75 Years After Hiroshima & Nagasaki Were "Struck By Black Rain": A Kuroi Ame ni Utarete Retrospective (August 6, 2020)

It's been more than a century since World War I was a thing, "The War to End All Wars" as they called it, while 2020 marked 75 years since the end of World War II... Because the first was so much trouble that they had to make it double. And how did WWII end, pray tell? By President Harry S. Truman feeling that it was necessary to drop two atomic bombs onto Japan, specifically Hiroshima & Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens, as well as 1 British, 7 Dutch, and 12 American prisoners of war! You know what was even "better"? The post-war "hibakusha" being treated like horrible monsters by their own fellow Japanese, and looked at as potential science examination subjects by the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission! Thankfully, one of those very hibakusha, the late Keiji Nakazawa, wound up becoming a mangaka, eventually creating the manga Barefoot Gen, which showed the trials & tribulations Nakazawa went through (by way of fictional proxy Gen Nagaoka) after surviving the Hiroshima bombing as a child. However, I knew that other people would cover the obvious subject of Nakazawa's iconic manga for the 75th Anniversary of the atomic bomb (props to Bennett the Sage for an excellent video about the anime movies), so what I felt was worth writing about was how Nakazawa first told his feelings on what happened that day... specifically the sheer anger & hatred he had.

The Land of Obscusion's Twelve Favorite Posts of 2019 & 2020!! Part 1

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!

I considered somehow getting all 27 volumes into one image,
but that'd be insane, even for Bastard!!.

Bastard!! (All of the Manga) (February 29, March 7 & 26, & April 12, 2020)

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.

Kill Me Baby: This Ain't the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew Mystery, It's Just Yasuna & Sonia in Your Vicinity

On three prior occasions I participated in the Reverse Thieves' Anime Secret Santa program, where participants get a "victim" (as I like to say) & have to recommend three anime to pick one from & put out an article, podcast, or what have you in time for Christmas Eve. Last year, the podcast All Geeks Considered took the reigns & have returned for another year, so I decided to participate once again. I specifically asked that my "Santa" challenge me this time around, and the trio of anime I got definitely is one of the strongest I had to choose from, I'd say. First up was 2018's SSSS.Gridman, Studio Trigger's wild & highly beloved interpretation of Tsuburaya Pro's tokusatsu series from the 90s, better known in English as Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, hence the "SSSS" part of the title. Second was 2008's Michiko & Matchin, the directorial debut of fan-favorite Sayo Yamamoto that had music produced by Shinichiro Watanabe. Without a doubt, both of these shows are ones that I have had interest in watching one day, and both would definitely challenge this blog's focus on obscurities, as both have very ardent & notable fanbases. However, that made the third choice I was given feel all the more from out of left field, and it's definitely something I probably wouldn't have gone after on my own, hence why I chose it.

The actual title splash is rather generic,
so here's the literal final image of the show!

Debuting in mid-2008 in Houbunsha's seinen magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat (home of manga like K-On!, Hidamari Sketch, A Channel, & Doujin Work), Kill Me Baby is the debut work for a man known only as Kaduho (though he specifically uses the rarely-seen katakana "ヅ",  so it should technically be "Kadzuho"); it's also known in Japan as Baby, please me kill me.. Like its fellow Kirara Carat series, it's a 4-panel gag manga that's still running to this day & is currently at 11 volumes. At the start of 2012 a 13-episode TV anime adaptation done by J.C. Staff aired in Japan in late-night, followed by a bonus OVA episode coming out in mid-2013 alongside a CD album called Kill Me Baby Super. While Kaduho was initially hesitant about how the manga would adapt into animation, he wound up being very active in its production, attending production meetings & responding to any & all questions about dialog the staff had for him; everyone had hopes for a second season, but it never came. The anime then found itself in hot water in late 2015 when cast member Ai Takabe was arrested for allegedly owning cocaine & the like, resulting in the anime being taken off of streaming services, though the charges were dropped in early 2016 & the anime returned to Japanese streaming; Takabe has yet to act in another anime, however. Sentai Filmworks licensed Kill Me Baby in early 2013 & released a dual-audio DVD boxset later that year, followed by a Blu-Ray set in late 2014, though the OVA is not included in either release, so I'll be relying on a fansub for that bonus episode.

I have absolutely no prior experience when it comes to this kind of source material, so will I regret asking for Patz from The Cockpit podcast to challenge me, or will Anime Secret Santa give me yet another pleasant surprise? Let's lock & load and find out!

Obscusion B-Side: The Legend of the Iron Man at the End(?) of the 3DO World: A Look at Tetsujin, Iron Angel of the Apocalypse

Minoru Kusakabe, who today also goes by the name Munoru Kusakabe, isn't exactly a known name in the video game industry, but there is a decent chance that you might have come across something he was involved in, namely in regards to CG cutscenes. You see, Kusakabe is a long-time veteran of producing computer-generated sequences, having directed CG cutscenes for games like Sonic the Hedgehog [2006], Panzer Dragoon Orta, Culdcept II, Tales of Symphonia, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, N3: Ninety-Nine Nights, & Gravity Rush. Prior to all of this, though, Kusakabe was an employee of Synergy Inc., a small Japanese developer/publisher that worked almost solely on PC software during its entire life from 1986 to 1998, all of which focused mainly on utilizing CG imagery. Kusakabe originally got his start helping work on the visuals for Haruhiko Shono's trio of Alice: An Interactive Museum, L-Zone, & the highly influential Gadget, & eventually was given the opportunity to direct himself, resulting in a pair of games that are immensely interesting for what they are, and have either become forgotten to time or sadly misunderstood.

Join me as I look back at the Tetsujin duology, better known abroad as Iron Angel of the Apocalypse.

Originally released for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer on April 9, 1994 in Japan, just a little over two weeks after the console's March 20 launch in that country, Tetsujin/Iron Man wouldn't see release in North America until May 1995, where it received the less literal but more awesome-sounding title (though I'll be using the Japanese title for brevity), and most surprisingly enough all of the voice work is simply subtitled, rather than dubbed over; Europe wouldn't receive either game, sadly. As for the concept, you play as the titular Tetsujin, an armor-plated "motoid" (i.e. an android) based around a nameless human that suddenly awakens at the bottom floor of a giant tower by a video message by a nameless mad scientist. "The Scientist" feels that humanity hasn't managed to properly move on to the next level of advancement, so he has created Tetsujin, the "ultimate killing machine", and now wants to test his creation & see if it truly is worthy by challenging Tetsujin to make its way up all 30 floors of the tower, destroying any robotic contraptions that get in its way. During the trek up, Tetsujin meets & is occasionally contacted by a mysterious golden android, which also is trying to make its way up the tower.

Retrospect in Retrograde: Haja Taisei Dangaioh

While The Land of Obscusion got its start on December 1, 2010, it actually wouldn't be until December 5 that the first actual review would get written & posted. As for why I chose Haja Taisei/Evil Crushing Great Star Dangaioh, I just felt that it would be appropriate that my first review for the blog should be for one of the earliest anime to be officially released in its original Japanese, with an English-subtitled translation. While I now know that the actual first ever anime release of this type was AnimEigo's VHS release of Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 in 1989, U.S. Renditions' release of "Dangaio" in 1990, alongside Gunbuster, remains one of the earliest official, uncut, subtitled anime releases in North America, so at least I was still pretty close; it may not be "The Forgotten 'Start-of-it-All'", but it's at least semi-forgotten today. So, after giving Next Senki Ehrgeiz the RiR treatment this spring & expanding on Momotaro's Sea Eagle with the Momotaro: Sacred Sailors review this summer, let's finally revisit the subject of the review that started it all here on The Land of Obscusion... And on the exact same day, only a literal decade later.

There's no eyecatch, so here's the end of the OP.

Toshihiro Hirano, also known by his pseudonym Toshiki Hirano (he seriously switches between them whenever he feels like it), got his start in the anime industry back in 1979 as a simple animator at Tatsunoko for Gatchaman Fighter, before moving on to titles like Urusei Yatsura, Dr. Slump Arale-chan, & Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. In 1985, though, he got his big break by doing the female character designs for Ninja Senshi Tobikage, being a major part of Megazone 23 (character designs, storyboard, & animation direction), & creating the Fight! Iczer-1 OVA, his directorial debut. He'd follow all of that up with doing the character designs for 1986's Cosmos Pink Shock, before returning to directing with two OVAs in 1987: Haja Taisei Dangaioh & Daimaju Gekito: Hagane no Oni. Both of them actually came from the dissolution of a planned OVA remake of Mazinger Z titled "Dai Mazinger", and from what I can tell Dangaioh seemingly maintained the super robot aesthetic, while Hagane no Oni maintained the darker aesthetic. Three episodes would come out from 1987 to 1989, before essentially disappearing into the void. Following U.S. Renditions' original VHS release from 1990 (Ep 1) & 1992 (Eps 2 & 3), Manga Entertainment would get the rights to the OVA after Renditions' demise, releasing a dubbed VHS titled Dangaioh: Hyper Combat Unit in 1996, followed by a DVD release in 2003. I purposefully ignored Manga's dub in the original review, and this time we will cover it, but enough backstory...

CROSS FIGHT!!!!! DAN-GAI-OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

D-Obscusion X: A Decade of Obscure & Forgotten Degeneracy

I know nobody knows where it comes and where it goes, but when you talk about things that nobody cares, or wearing out things that nobody wears, & when nobody's calling your name but you gotta make clear that you you can't say where you'll be in a year... And, boy, was the year 2020 a real good liar, 'cause the world stage boogie certainly set our pants on fire! There's nothing I can say about how the world itself, & especially the country I live in, that hasn't already been said online this entire year, so how about how things worked out for me? Admittedly, I got lucky in that the global pandemic didn't do anything with my actual job beyond changing me into an ad hoc employee, coming in to work when needed, while still getting paid regularly, since I have a salary; I wish everyone got that kind of treatment. Still, that resulted in me having a lot more time to write for the blog, & already I've put out slightly more this year than I did last year. However, all this extra time also got me thinking, likely too much so, about something:

Have these past 10 years of The Land of Obscusion really amounted to anything?

"Legacy" is something that no one naturally thinks of when they start doing something, and for some the concept never really comes to mind. However, the longer & longer you do the same thing, I think it's only human to start wondering if what you've been doing has any "point" to it, beyond doing so simply because you enjoy doing it; you don't have to think this, but I just think it's natural. This is all the more so when you do something in which the entire point is for others to experience it, such as writing. Really, the catalyst for this came this past May with the sudden passing of Zac Bertschy, Editorial Director for Anime News Network. There's no doubt that Zac was a polarizing person, and some might argue that he purposefully played it up as a way to encourage good conversation, but there's no denying that he left behind a legacy for ANN, one that transitioned the site from a simple "news & review site" into one that actively encouraged its visitors to not just enjoy anime/manga/games/etc., but also dig deeper & search for why they loved it, while also encouraging people to call out its problems (both meta & industry-wide) & hope for improvements. I certainly had my grievances with Zac at times, though nothing that reached into hateful, but I always had the highest respect for him & seeing how his death affected so many (including myself), regardless of whether they personally knew him or never even interacted with him online at all, made me start to think about what this blog's entire relevancy even is, after a decade in operation.