Sometimes I need to be reminded of why I watch anime so I dived into my retro collection and dug out an old police anime from the 90s, this review is Burn Up W.
First a history lesson, in the past the Burn Up franchise started as a one off OVA that rounded off the ultra violent era of anime perfectly, this then became the four episode ova were reviewing today followed by a 13 episode TV series and an alternate universe TV series also 13 episodes.
Burn Up W is about a specialist police task force called Warrior consisting of Busty Martial Arts Master Rio, Gun Crazed Lunatic Maya, Perverted Pilot Yuji, Perky Little Hacker Lilica and Genki Tech Scientist (who probably has several law suits from Studio Gainax) Nanval; all of whom are led by the deviously cruel Maki who is apparently the same Maki from the very first Burn Up which is odd because that Maki is blonde and looks suspiciously like Rio.
Anyway the first mission is a hostage situation but the four guys doing it are only after weird requests like demanding a Baseball Manager to publicly castrate himself or asking an Idol Singer to bungee jump naked, in the meantime the proper terrorists who setup the whole hostage situation attempt to try and market a so called Virtual Drug by testing it on certain hostages behind the scenes.
Team Warrior go into action and deliberately mess around with the terrorists demands with Rio pretending to be the naked Idol Singer to grab the Terrorists attention and take them out, that's just episode one.
Being honest episode two is the worst, the quality is dire, the story barely makes any sense and the sound quality in the dub is awful, and how a Virtual Idol is significant to the whole Virtual Drug thing is not explained and the attack android the enemies have, comes out of no where, not to mention Nanvel building a cheap knock off of EVA Unit 01 which explains the early joke on lawsuits.
The final two part episode takes things in a more serious approach as a traitor within the Police Ranks stages a terrorist attack in the Police Building killing Rio's best friend along with many other officers. Warrior are deployed to take out the terrorists and win but a curious epilogue left more questions as the villains use their influence over the President to disband everyone investigating the Virtual Drug and it kind of leaves it on that cliff hanger.
It's clear from the epilogue that this was meant to last longer than it did but thankfully Burn Up Excess manages to satisfy the fans hunger for this series which will be reviewed at a later date.
Burn Up W is just plain fun, the first episode alone is my favorite first episode of any anime, it knew it had to grab attention and grab attention it did, while episode two is horrible the final two episodes that round this off deliver an episode that perfectly balances drama, action and comedy and knows not to over do it on all ends.
With only one duff episode out of four, Burn Up W was onto something special which is why a new series was green lit with the same cast of characters. The dub is great, the art style really shows great detail at times and the overall run of the story is very entertaining to watch.
Final Verdict: Burn Up W is plain fun and is the diamond polished from the rock of it's older sister the original Burn Up. While the second episode is very much a miss and the epilogue adds more questions, the other episodes more than make up for it.
Now the second review, this time it's Clarence.
Clarence is about an optimistic kid of the same name who loves fun and each episode is basically whatever fun scenario that can be created from a basic plot. That's about it really, there's nothing much to talk about in that regards.
So having just finished Uncle Grandpa and not really hating it, do I feel the same about this show?
Well yes, the difference is it takes from another classic medium of a group of kids with the central character being the class clown and it really doesn't do a lot wrong. My only issue is that I'm not a fan of the art style and it doesn't do anything I would consider great but again there's no real reason to hate it either.
This kind of enigma that seems to plague shows like Clarence in this era is rather jarring and makes it difficult to find a strong definitive opinion for, even more jarring when the creator of the show was fired by Cartoon Network for sexual assault. But I will say it again this era still surprises me and even a normal cartoon can't be considered bad anymore.
Next time a top ten list.
There are a few shows that I want to get out of my system particularly from the Cartoon Network stable. So expect the second review to follow immediately after this one as we start with Uncle Grandpa.
Uncle Grandpa began as a spin off show to the forgettable Secret Mountain Fort Awesome about a magical old man who is everyone's uncle and grandpa, how that works is baffling but not the weirdest thing the show offers.
A typical episode would have someone having problems and Uncle Grandpa solving it in his own eccentric way, he does this with a magical belly bag, a disgruntled Green Dinosaur named Mr Gus, a sentient Pizza named Pizza Steve and a Giant Realistic Flying Tiger who is propelled by rainbow farts.
Yeah the weirdness in this show is unbelievable at times especially when they perform an Animaniacs style sketch in between commercial breaks and episodes, the recipe for this show sounds like the worst possible cartoon, yet I don't actually hate it.
I've been fortunate enough to have seen a large enough library of cartoons that whenever a modern show goes back to the basics of slapstick and weirdness that early Disney, Tex Avery and Looney Tunes gave us, it actually makes me smile more than it makes me groan.
Yes, Uncle Grandpa isn't perfect and it's nowhere near the standard of Cartoon Network's current big three but at the very least it isn't terrible, and still gives us hope that cartoons haven't completely lost the plot, no pun intended.
Apparently today is officially Goku Day in Japan, just for the celebration of anime's finest hero Son Goku from Dragonballz so I figured I review his introduction in the original Dragonball anime.
Do I really need to tell you the story?.........
Okay fine, Goku is a boy with a monkey tail who grows up alone having lost his grandfather, this doesn't seem to affect the kid as he functions quite well on his own. Bulma is a teenage girl in search of the mystical Dragonballs, large shiny stones that when seven are combined can summon a dragon and grant wishes, upon meeting Goku, Bulma explains what Dragonballs are as Goku has one and the two decide to search for the other Dragonballs, this starts a series of fantastic adventures fighting weird beasts, martial arts masters and plenty of juvenile jokes to go around.
And that last part is my biggest problem with this series, it's the juvenile jokes, they haven't aged well in an era that doesn't welcome them anymore. For example an early running joke is Goku trying to identify women by tapping them in a forbidden area. I'll let you work that one out.
Some other jokes are Bulma being a tsundere (you wouldn't think she invented it but she did) Oolong being a coward and a pervert and the first enemy boiling down to an imp dressed as a clown.
The story all round is terrible, but, and this a big but, it improves dramatically as the series goes on as stakes are raised and enemies get better and then you start looking at Dragonball as a fighting shonen anime rather than a mystical adventure one which foreshadows Dragonballz's premier towards the end.
Toriyama is a good artist and can choreograph an excellent fight scene but can't write a story without featuring horribly written jokes and pointless fanservice in an era that didn't feature it mainstream. The Overall experience knowing that this show is roughly the same age as me is slight disbelief that the most significant fighting anime of all time evolved from such a train wreck packed with really difficult to swallow 80s cliches, while it's a long series that does grow up over time, you still have to put up with the really bad parts to get to the good parts.
Final Verdict: This is why Dragonballz was licensed before Dragonball, the jokes really fall flat for a modern day audience and shows it's age badly as a result, while it does improve it takes time to improve and if you haven't already switched off by then, then you will be well rewarded for your patience.
This week has been stressful so lets take it out on a Fighting Game Anime as we look at all three Fatal Fury feature films.
Fatal Fury
In a world where corruption is easy to do, a big martial arts/business man seeks to gain power by making all the Martial Arts schools in the world redundant, Geese Howard does this through any means necessary including killing the father of Terry and Andy Bogard. Ten years later Terry and Andy compete to see who can learn their late father's secret technique from his mentor and use it to enter the King of Fighters tournament to defeat Geese.
First off I'm not a big fan of calling the main villain Geese, reminds me of an episode of Regular Show.
What stops this first film from being a complete bore is the introduction of anime only character Lily. At the start as a child she was instrumental in the death of Terry and Andy's father but as an adult she later falls for Terry Bogard which sadly costs her, her life which gives a bit more dimension to the usual fighting game story but it sadly slips on it's ass when you consider that Geese is frequently resorting to coward tactics such as shooting and poisoning when Geese himself could easily take down the protagonists which leads to a bit of an anti climax in the end when he's taken down a little too easily. Kind of a waste when it looked like it was doing so well.
Final Verdict: It's trying to accomplish something different that other fighting game anime can't seem to do but misses the point and resorts to lazy story telling to make ends meet.
Fatal Fury 2
A new villain enters the fray with Wolfgang Krauser, an intimidating yet wonderfully camp villain who can really back up his style, more so than other villains of the same type. Meanwhile Terry Bogard finds honest work in a Dockyard but quickly gets stuck babysitting a tag-a-long kid and fighting quick matches against other combatants from the King of Fighters, it doesn't last long when Krauser beats him down so badly that it turns Terry into an alcoholic. Meanwhile Andy and Joe hearing of Terry's defeat, makes a decision to help Terry out, so Joe tries to snap some sense into his friend while Andy along with his Girlfriend Mai Shiranui travel to Germany to confront Krauser. Mai doesn't really do much but watching her interact with Andy shows an honest chemistry between the two. Back with Joe who has a decent go at Krauser but is taken down easily, meanwhile Terry after snapping out of it watching the tag-a-long kid being beat up proves to his brother Andy that he's back to normal and takes on Krauser in the highlight battle of the franchise.
They made a real effort in this one, better animation, better side characters, much better villain and some pretty good fights. The polish was definitely used in the right places and the film does it very well, the tag-a-long kid is a little forced into the film but it's pretty easy to ignore.
Final Verdict: Much better in quality all round and one of the few to do the fighting game anime right.
Fatal Fury the Motion Picture
In our biggest feature the villains are looking for the Armour of Mars, but Laocorn's sister Sulia decides that he's wrong and goes after Terry Bogard for help. Meanwhile the others watch Joe fight a major Thai Boxing match followed closely by a quick fight from Kim Kaphwan. Our heroes Terry, Andy, Joe and Mai travel to many parts of the world trying to obtain pieces of the Armour of Mars before Laocorn's group, stopping at a number of locations including a nightclub if only to watch Mai Shiranui do the sexiest dance in anime history. (Trust me, Ten years ago her dance was a meme) There are throwbacks to the two films including cameos from Laurence Blood and Geese Howard as well, in fact the Motion Picture has the tendency to throw cameos in for no reason.
Sadly our heroes face defeat a number of times as Terry, Mai and Andy all get defeated by Laocorn's associates, Joe just seems to do nothing. Luckily they all take revenge in a number of awesome ways and confront Laocorn for the final battle in what is the stupidest looking battle costume of all time. (I sense a list coming) Sulia takes her own life to stop the Armour from taking control of Laocorn but said Armour takes a mind of it's own and fights Terry in the final battle with many of Terry's power coming out of rage obviously winning, it's kind of a rule in this genre. The movie ends on the cheesiest ending theme of all time.
This kind of falls in between the other films in terms of quality, it maintains the art style of the second film but paces itself poorly and has this expectation that the viewers have played the SNK games to know all the pointless cameos, while I welcome Mai doing more than just swoon over Andy, I kind of wish Joe Higashi did more himself.
Final Verdict: It's okay, it at least tries but like the first film it succumbs to lazy writing and probably should've been a quick ova series to help it pace better.
Franchise Final Verdict: It's clear that the creators tried hard to not make these anime films like it's contemporaries by giving an added dimension to each one but only the second film had the decency not to resort to lazy writing once they added the dimension in. But a quick look at other Fighting Game Anime, Fatal Fury is the best you're ever going to get.
