Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow: Toei Finally Takes This Series Seriously

This anime has since been re-reviewed in a more comprehensive & detailed manner, alongside the other seasons, via Retrospect in Retrograde, which you can read at this link.

Now I wasn't quite sure of what review to do today, especially since I didn't really have anything Christmas-y on my list of shows to review. Luckily, my CDJapan order of Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow Volume 3 arrived much faster than I had planned on it arriving, so I decided to re-watch those first two DVDs I bought back in the late-summer/early-fall as well as watch this last DVD. And with that comes my holiday gift to all of you: A review of an anime that no one seemed to give a damn about this year!

Now when I say that no one gave a damn about this show this year, I mean ABSOLUTELY NO ONE! The idea of a third season of the Ring ni Kakero 1 anime was hinted at back in early 2009 when Masami Kurumada posted an image on his blog that showed a new song he was writing for something called "Ring ni Kakero 1: Sekai-hen". Nothing else would come from this until that December when Toei announced Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow at Jump Festa 2010. The big change from that announcement would be that the anime would air on Animax's PPV service rather than TV Asahi, where the past two seasons originally aired. It would also debut in April 2010, about 4 years after Season 2 aired, and have two episodes made available for a limited time in April, May, and June, totaling 6 episodes, half the length of the previous seasons.

B't X: Kurumada's Take on Mechs

This anime has since been re-reviewed in a more comprehensive & detailed manner via Retrospect in Retrograde, which you can read at this link.

When it comes to anime adaptations of Masami Kurumada mangas there are usually at least one of these links: Either Toei animated it or Shingo Araki & Michi Himeno did the character designs. Saint Seiya and Ring ni Kakero 1 have both links and Fuma no Kojiro at least has Araki & Himeno as the link. B't X (pronounced "Beat X"), on the other hand, is the outlier to this, as it has no real links to the other adaptations. Putting that aside, though, B't X is actually really good manga, and the 25-episode TV anime adaptation of it from 1996 is pretty good.

Kotaro Takamiya is a child prodigy from a Kamui Island, a small island off the coast of Japan, when it comes to robotics. At a young age he leaves home to go to Berlin so that he can learn more, leaving behind his little brother Teppei. Five years later he invites Teppei to Beijing for Mechatopia, where Kotaro will reveal his findings on how humans can create robots with actual intelligence. Shortly after meeting up again a mysterious group called the Machine Empire kidnaps Kotaro and brings him to The Area, their home base hidden within the Gobi Desert. Luckily, Teppei had been trained during those five years by Karen, one of the Empire's strongest warriors called the "Spirit Generals" who became a traitor and escaped, and was able to follow Kotaro to The Area. If Teppei has any chance at rescung Kotaro he'll have to find B't X, Karen's old robotic partner.

Ring ni Kakero 1 Pilot Film: Five Minutes of Yamauchi

Now that we've taken a look at the first two seasons of Ring ni Kakero 1, let's go back to late 2003/early 2004, before the first season aired. Again, to celebrate Masami Kurumada's 30th Anniversary as a manga-ka, Toei decided to return to their anime adaptation of Kurumada's international hit, Saint Seiya. Not only was Toei going  to adapt the Hades Chapter of the manga, which they started doing early work on back during the TV series' airing but stopped doing after the show was canceled, but they were also going to team up with Kurumada himself to create Saint Seiya: Tenkai-hen Jousou ~Overture~, a theatrically-released movie that was going to continue the Seiya story from where the manga left off at by. 

Both the first Hades OVA, Hades Sanctuary, and Tenkai-hen movie were directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, who had previously and since directed the two Dr. Slump TV series, some of the Dragon Ball Z movies, the Street Fighter Alpha movie, Xenosaga the Animation, and Casshern SINS. Also, the Tenkai-hen movie was going to lead into a future TV series that would continue the Heaven Chapter that the movie started, hence the "Overture" part of the title. Unfortunately, while the Hades Sanctuary OVA is highly regarded as possibly the best part of the Saint Seiya anime in its entirety the Tenkai-hen movie, while still an interesting movie, ended up being a very different story than what Kurumada had wanted, and his disappointment with it resulted in him pulling Yamauchi off of all future Hades OVA productions and the proposed Heaven Chapter TV series was canceled before production could really start. But we're not here to talk about Seiya, we're here to talk about Ring ni Kakero 1...

Ring ni Kakero 1: Nichibei Kessen-hen: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

This anime has since been re-reviewed in a more comprehensive & detailed manner, alongside the other seasons, via Retrospect in Retrograde, which you can read at this link.

OK, what with the reveal of Season 4 of Ring ni Kakero 1 happening just today I still can't forget that I was in the middle of reviewing the other seasons that had been made already. So with that let's get into Season 2...

I had not mentioned it in Season 1's review, but "Ring ni Kakero" translates roughly as "Put it All in the Ring", which is completely fitting for this story, as every main character is always willing to put everything they have into their matches... Well, except for Kenzaki, but that's because he's just that good. I feel that the translation was appropriate to mention now mainly because this season adds a subtitle, Nichibei Kessen-hen, which is even more Japanese to take in. Anyway, the subtitle is a very tough thing to translate, as it can be taken literally as "The Pacific War Chapter" or you can be loose with it and call  it the "Japan vs. USA Chapter" (Sentai translated an episode of Eyeshield 21 that has the same name as this season as the latter, so I'd go with that).

Ring ni Kakero 1: Sekai Taikai-hen Officially Announced at Jump Festa 2011!

Oh hell yeah! Season 4 of Ring ni Kakero 1!  I was hoping that this would be announced this weekened, and it was. As for the "Masami Kurumada Project", this might be a part of it, but Kurumada himself put on his blog a picture of a Pegasus Saint from the back. More than likely it's Seiya, indicating something related to the original series' canon. But for now let's talk about Ring ni Kakero 1: Sekai Taikai-hen!

First off, the subtitle translates to "World Tournament Chapter", which is the main story arc that the previous seasons were all leading up to, so there's obviously going to be a lot to live up to. As for the cast, it seems like every major character from the last three seasons are back, so the new names on the cast list are for the members of Team Greece, and so far the only name I can confirm is that member Theseus is voiced by Kazuya Nakai (a.k.a. Zoro from One Piece and Hijikata from Gintama, among other roles). This is actually great news, as Nakai already voiced Theseus, albeit it very shortly, in the 2003 Pilot Film, so it's great to see that Toei is keeping with continuity from that film. 

Also, the director for this season is yet another person, which seems to be a pattern with this anime. Seasons 1 and 3 were directed by Toshiaki Komura while Season 2 was directed by Yukio Kaizawa, but Season 4 is done by someone else and I can't tell who right now. Finally, this season is co-produced by Sammy, who makes the very-popular pachislot machines based on Ring ni Kakero 1. While Sammy had sponsored the airings of Seasons 1 & 2, Toei produced Season 3 solo, so it's interesting to see Sammy putting their money directly into the production this time.

This should be good...

Anime © Masami Kurumada/Shueisha・Toei Animation・Sammy