Anime Episode-1s of the New Season

[xyzzysqrl]

Watched a couple of the newest anime episodes, freshly-fansubbed and ready to pluck. Here's my thoughts:

X-Men: ASIDE from being very Japanese (Scott is super-pretty! Wolverine has three necks and they're all from Fist of the North Star! Storm is Halle Berry with E-cups! Beast is... well, Beast is hot as hell, frankly, rrowr) this is pretty much any given X-Men story of the... call it mid-70s-to-80s?. The X-Men go to Japan to find a kidnapped girl, there's some angst about JEAAAAAAN, the U-Men use their technology and SCIENCE to systematically rip of Akira and build killer robots, etc. Pretty good if this is what you want from a TV show!

Dororon Enma-kun MeeraMera: A remake of a Go Nagai production from the 70s, about a patrol of demons from Hell who fight other demons from Hell on Earth. This being Go Nagai, the lead is a murderous lech, the side characters are dippy as hell, and the whole thing proceeds with violence and complete lack of reverence for anything. This show taught me some important things. For one, it taught me if you're going to remake something have the dude who directed GaoGaiGar remake it and have Masaki Endoh sing the theme song. Also, if a demon attempts to steal your face, break his dick in half and kill him with a sledgehammer. (HOLY FUCK.) This show is about 9000% more Manly than Tactics. This show is about 9000% more Manly than anything else I'm watching. I am totally following this.

Tiger And Bunny: Okay. It is THE FUTURE. Corporations can give people the ability to become Super Heroes by giving them powered armor and tech gizmos. This means that every super-hero has logos plastered all over his outfit. Meanwhile, reality television has broken out around this, and heroes are scored points based on how well they save the people. A washed-up, aging hero is bought out by a new megacorp and paired up with a rising up-and-comer to fight crime. Will they rage against The System on the way? Odds seem likely. This is the most meta-advertising shit I have seen ALL YEAR and I'm including Kamen Rider OOOs in that, and OOOs is a show that is literally based around marketing false coins and things called "Greeed". Will be following this too.
[EDIT: Huh. Also, Tiger and Bunny is on Hulu. AWESOME. Bye, fansubs!]


In general it seems like a good season for new shows!

Comments

[shaterri.livejournal.com]

Yay! I've been really curious about Tiger And Bunny; it sounds like I should absolutely check it out. I did catch the first episode of My Ordinary Life, and I really liked that - it's definitely trying to be That Weird Azumanga Daioh, but it's mostly succeeding, and pretty gratuitously adorably fun in the process.

[xyzzysqrl]

Oh, huh. Tiger and Bunny is actually -on Hulu-.

*ditch fansubs*

[relee.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard of any of that before! Facinating.

[mocha-mephooki.livejournal.com]

Huh... Tiger and Bunny sounds interesting... may have to check that out.

[baines.livejournal.com]

I complained about X-Men in my own journal posts, but I'm thinking it is going to go downhill.

It is looking like it is going to have a single story arc for the season, which didn't work so well in the Wolverine anime. One other concern here is that the Wolverine anime also started fairly strong, with care and thought put into it. By the end, the Wolverine anime was pretty sloppily designed, without that effort to be found.

And while X-Men at least gets Wolverine's abilities right (and does a better job at his look) than his own anime managed, it also manages to mess up Storm. For no decent reason, Scott has to be the most powerful mutant on the team. How do you do that on a team that also includes Storm? X-Men does it by making Storm collapse if she tries to use her powers for five seconds straight. (Check episode 2, where it happens twice.)

[xyzzysqrl]

Yeah, that kinda pissed me off too. They're wrecking Storm.

"Scott is always the strongest guy ever" is kind of a running theme in X-Men adaptations, as is JeanAngst. I'm used to that.

[xyzzysqrl]

..Yeah, in general, reading your posts none of what you pointed out actually bothered me at all. Sorry! I am going to enjoy this.

[baines.livejournal.com]

For me, it is more that those things make me worry for the future. I was pretty positive on the Wolverine anime at first as well, and that just eventually collapsed.

I'm at least not looking at it as "My gods! This is horrible! What has Japan done to the X-Men!" like I've seen on some sites. The ones that tend to hold the 90s X-Men cartoon as the pinnacle of animated X-Men, even though it took its own share of liberties with the source material.

[xyzzysqrl]

Yeah, don't get me wrong. You have valid concerns and comments. This isn't me, like... blowing you off as irrelevant or anything. (At least, not trying to.)

It's just that... I dunno, I have some different perspectives on things. Like when Wolverine started explaining to his own teammates that he has a healing factor and that's why he could take eyebeams to the face, I freaking lost it. That's the kind of thing I'm watching this show for.

As much as I'd prefer it if they, say... dropped the whole "Emma Frost" plotline I can see coming a mile away, powered Storm back up and maybe gave her an awesome mohawk, and derailed this trip to Japan into a reunion with Scott's dad and a trip around the cosmos with the Starjammers... I pretty much am okay with taking what I'm given.

(I did not watch the Wolverine or Iron Man animes, mind you, because I figured ahead of time those were gonna fall apart. Maybe I'm just forgiving with the X-Men because I'm USED to them being kind of dumb and eye-rollable.)

[baines.livejournal.com]

I never watched Iron Man, though I heard it fell apart.

I do give X-Men credit for not only doing a better job on Wolverine's look but also actually getting his abilities right. The Wolverine anime didn't manage either of those. (He tracked people with super-hearing. His claws couldn't cut anything harder than concrete. Because of badly designed action sequences, he pretty much ended up with super strength.)

I don't really mind the Emma Frost plotline. Emma has been married to Scott for so long in the comics that other stuff pretty much has to start acknowledging it. It only becomes a bit of mess because the anime wants Jean as well. And doing likely a single large storyline, they end up rushed with how they can get Emma from villain to X-Man. This plotline could go horribly wrong, but then again it could be fine in the end.

[xyzzysqrl]

Yeah, but as you probably guessed, I was really big on like... 70s/80s era X-Men. Emma not being a villain still seems new and surreal to me.

I guess it's all just a big lump of STUFF. I'm pretty much in this to watch Beast look awesome, the X-Men fight killer robots, and Wolverine's immense neck bulge and twist alarmingly. You seem to want actual quality of storytelling, which is commendable but not really my metaphorical house.

[baines.livejournal.com]

I was never a big fan of Scott. Jean was a bit dull to me, Phoenix excepted. Scott and Jean as a couple was putting two boring characters into a boring marriage. It didn't do anything for either of them solo. Plus I was tired of the overdone Scott/Jean/Logan triangle.

I was reading when Grant Morrison shook up the X-Men, which to me breathed new life into the franchise even though I hated what he was doing at first. So I was there when Emma joined the X-Men (which was handled rather well to me, and built off her past ventures towards a more middle ground), when Scott and Jean's marriage fell apart (due to Emma), when Scott and Emma became an item, when Jean was killed again, and when Jean/Phoenix removed Scott's guilt over the whole thing.

And I liked Scott and Emma as a couple. I think their relationship helps both characters as individual characters, whereas Scott/Jean just turned them into a single amorphous blob.


As for wanting quality of storytelling, if I just want action with bad stories, I can just read the X-Men comics. :p Uncanny hasn't exactly been amazing for the last few years, and with some pretty gaping plot holes and general bad plotting, for example. Sadly, no matter how bad an animated series gets, you can probably find a comics run that was worse.

[xyzzysqrl]

Not really sure where this conversation is going, and you're being kind of a downer, so I'm pretty much just going to stop replying. Enjoy the show, I guess! Or don't.