Next on Shojo Week is Italy's most successful cartoon franchise Winx Club. *Puts on Sunglasses*
TOO MANY SPARKLES!!!!
The story revolves around Bloom who one day discovers she's a fairy as well as a lost princess, upon this discovery she ends up in Fairy School and befriends other fairies forming a friendship group called the Winx Club. From there Bloom starts piecing together her past while fighting off evil witches, dark wizards and various other assorted enemies.
Remember yesterday that I mentioned that Italians loved shojo? Well this is what they call a Magical Girl show over in Italy, and for a series that is so obsessed with super thin waist girls wearing gaudy super colorful sparkly fairy costumes with about as much personal development as Barbie liking a color other than pink, it somehow managed to click with a world audience and is played in as many countries as more well known cartoons like the Simpsons and Tom & Jerry. In fact Winx Club is easily accessible here in the UK yet a number of popular Magical Girl shows aren't, it's actually quite baffling that this is easier to find than Sailor Moon.
I think the secret to Winx's success is being able to grab the audience with color and fashion, a technique well used by the Japanese in all their current shojo series, not to mention every season adds different transformations to keep the show fresh.
I still don't like it, considering that I usually let a lot of this stuff pass, Winx doesn't offer anything new other than style, the substance is the same thing every season and nothing really evolves, at least Pretty Cure had new characters every season, Winx Club just drowns you in sparkles until you vomit glitter and rainbows.
Well two shows in and it's not looking promising. *Still blinded by the sparkles*
Writer's block has been annoying me lately so lets dig up a theme to use this week as I bring you Shojo Week; every show reviewed this week is aimed at a female audience with a mixture of pink, fluffy and more grown up works. Not all of the shows will be anime and not all of them will be good so sit back and enjoy as we start off with Magical Angel Creamy Mami.
Ten year old Yu Morisawa was just an ordinary girl until she discovers a spaceship, after helping the friendly alien, she is granted a magical wand which allows her to transform into a sixteen year old at any time for one year.
However when she enters the public eye in her sixteen year old form she gets scouted to become an idol singer, now Yu under the stage name Creamy Mami must endure the ups and downs of being an idol while trying to keep her magic a secret from her suspicious friends.
The premise of this show sounds exciting, Akemi Takada's designs along with her art books are beautiful and really bring to life the maturity and grace hidden inside Mami and this was well before Barbie dolls covered the entire girls spectrum of interests and well before Disney Princess was a franchise. So why is this 32 year old franchise so boring?
Well the industry itself is boring, as exciting as being an idol singer is, the so called ups and downs get swept up in all the politics with all the secondary characters within the show often leaving Mami as a plot device rather than a lead character as her actions move the story but aren't always centered around her, this is why Idol Densetsu Eriko is even worst than this and why this show isn't more celebrated today, it didn't help that Studio Pierrot made so many of these shows in the 80s that there wasn't even an alternative to choose from. It's a shame it had to be this way, especially with such a good artist on board but nothing about this show other than the concept is memorable as it's been done by better anime.
There's no dub, in fact the only American release quickly finished and discontinued without a trace; there's a wide release in several European countries especially Italy who love Shojo shows.
Final Verdict: A well designed anime that's too boring to be remembered in the modern age.
Now for my next review who this week is celebrating his 75th Birthday, he's cartoon royalty it's Bugs Bunny!
Bugs Bunny as a concept started in 1938 where a rabbit outwits Porky Pig in the cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt. The concept was played around a bit until they came to the short Elmer's Candid Camera in 1940, which starred Elmer Fudd who was previously known as Egghead before hand and still going through several designs. From that short they settled on Bugs Bunny as a character with Tex Avery changing many characteristics to the ones we know today, with a voice a mix of a Brooklyn and Bronx accent along with trademark white gloves and personality of a Karmic Trickster. The cartoon was so successful that Bugs would not only become Warner Bros most successful show but also become the company mascot, in 1943 Bob Clampert would alter the design to the most recognized version that would last a whopping 67 years before a modern simpler design was used but the official Warner Bros mascot is still the iconic version. So how has he managed to remain such a great character?
Well Bugs Bunny says it best himself with this quote from Bob Clampert written in first person.
"Some people call me cocky and brash, but actually I am just self-assured. I'm nonchalant, imperturbable, contemplative. I play it cool, but I can get hot under the collar. And above all I'm a very 'aware' character. I'm well aware that I am appearing in an animated cartoon....And sometimes I chomp on my carrot for the same reason that a stand-up comic chomps on his cigar. It saves me from rushing from the last joke to the next one too fast. And I sometimes don't act, I react. And I always treat the contest with my pursuers as 'fun and games.' When momentarily I appear to be cornered or in dire danger and I scream, don't be consoined – it's actually a big put-on. Let's face it, Doc. I've read the script and I already know how it turns out."
That pretty much sums up Bugs Bunny, when minding his own business he's harmless, when he's dragged into a situation he fights back using the funniest way possible making a fool out of the ones who pursue him for food or simply get rid of him. Even now you can play a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon and you wouldn't believe it was from the 1940s. That's how you do timeless.
I have returned from hiatus after an incredible holiday and there is loads of stuff to upload and starting this run is Super Sonico!
First a lesson, Super Sonico is the official mascot of Nitroplus, a video game and software company specializing in visual novels; she was introduced at a music festival that Nitroplus sponsors, however Sonico is better seen as a fanservice idol whose figures, body pillows and well endowed mousepads make her a more mature alternative to Hatsune Miku, especially when you consider that Sonico is 18 years old and her music is more geared to J-Rock rather than synth pop, so what is this mascot doing in her own anime? Being herself in her day to day life.
Yeah that's pretty much 12 episodes of Super Sonico, a slice of life look at this busty idol.
Sonico is a University Student in Marine Biology, a part time Waitress in her Grandmother's restaurant, a part time Super Model with a demon masked manager and a Guitarist for her rock band First Astronomical Velocity; she's also slightly klutzy, seems to end up in fanservice clothes by force of nature, always wears headphones even in bed and showers, is a narcoleptic that needs four alarm clocks and five cats to wake up and the fact that she owns five cats qualifies her as a crazy cat lady, so why is she so much better than Hatsune Miku or even all the other idols Japan has animated over the past couple of decades?
Well Sonico is the most believable; the classic magical idol variation is nice and pure but is horribly boring and the reason why I don't review them much, while Hatsune Miku types are fun but seem too perfect and needs a good story to make said character interesting while the current idol shows have lots of idols in sparkly costumes but not much variation in personality; Sonico is better than all of those and is well backed up by a good dub voice as well. Everything she does is innocent, not always perfect, a lot of her faults are usually down to her busy lifestyle especially her sleeping problems, something I can relate heavily to and you can't help but love her for it.
The episodes are a mixed bag going from exceptional to down right terrible with no consistency, the best episodes are Sonico focused, the outright best episode is just Sonico traveling across Japan yet the worst ones tend to be the ones that go off genre with the weird zombie ship episode along with the stray cat episode with the downright worst episode being an annoying fake murder case.
There isn't much story to follow as even the last episode is just a 25 minute concert so you can take the episodes that are good and just watch them instead of the whole thing, but one thing that does shine the most is the 3D music videos at the end of each episode which are incredibly well made and as good as Vocaloid videos, which serves as Super Sonico's biggest selling point and going back to the best episode just being a tour of Japan, if Sonico just did those kinds of episodes it would be one of the best anime on TV, so there is room for a lot of great things in Super Sonico, you just need to look past the fan service to get there.
Final Verdict: Super Sonico is a great character to watch and the majority of the show is reliant on it making anything that takes away from that bad, stick to the Sonico focus episodes for best viewing, you won't lose much ignoring the bad episodes.
It has been brought to my attention that this series is going to be remade or at least the creator is thinking about it.
From the interviews I've read online, there's a lot that can go wrong with a remake of a show like the Raccoons but there are ways that it can go right, so this tribute list will examine the Do's and Don't's of remakes for this show and examples of others that got it right or wrong.
Don't Rely on CGI as a First Choice
The most popular cartoons at the moment don't actually use it and even returning franchises like Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry have managed to avoid it but shows like Garfield have a hard time grabbing an audience when that went to CGI because it lacks the slapstick that the original show had, only a non dialogue cartoon like Wil.E Coyote & Road Runner can pull this off successfully.
Do Keep the Formula that Made the Original Famous
It's not difficult to keep formulas for cartoons, heck if Scooby Doo can keep going with their formula then what's to say other cartoons can't. The Raccoons wouldn't work without the insert songs or it's main theme.
Don't Rely too much on Modern Technology
If you remade something that today hasn't aged well then you probably should leave it alone, Jem and the Holograms made the fatal mistake of jumping on the social media bandwagon to plug their live action reboot movie, which has turned a cheesy yet charming 80s cartoon into another horrific Nickelodeon style live action tween movie.
Do Pick a Vocal Cast that can Bring back the Characters Properly
A sad reality about cartoons is that while they live as long as they're remembered, their voice actors won't, they are still human and will have to depart this world eventually; a sad truth particularly with Raccoons is most of their main voice cast have passed away. To better explain what I mean. Mickey Mouse has had 10 Voice Actors since his creation and no one has ever questioned the quality of his voice, so voice acting isn't an issue.
Don't Dramatically Change Character Designs or Change their Gender just Because Some Network Told you so
My biggest complaint about the remake of Thunderbirds and what I'm reading about the Danger Mouse remake as well is the dramatic change in certain characters. When you make a character for any TV show it should remain in that form for it's existence. Art Direction for characters is subjective and reasonable but turning a character who was previously male into female like Lieutenant Green in Captain Scarlet or changing an iconic looking character into something unrecognizable like turning Yogi Bear into an early 90s teenager is not right.
Do Fix the bits that were Broken with the Original
Fans are easily narked off about changes to their precious cartoons but there are some things that everyone will agree with. Try telling me these ideas were bad?
Thundercats Remake: Snarf doesn't talk.
Modern Scooby Doo: Scrappy Doo doesn't exist in Canon.
My Little Pony: It's not Generation 3.
Small examples but you can see my point.
Don't Let a New Character Take the Lead
Optimus Prime should always lead the Transformers not Bumblebee. Scooby Doo is called Scooby Doo not the lets watch an awkward relationship between Fred and Daphne Show. Tom & Jerry is about a cat and mouse fighting each other, not a supporting player to a character that no one cares about. You can see where I'm going with this, no more needs to be said.
Do Pay Tributes to the Original Source Material
You'll be doing yourself and your original fans so many favors that you'll quickly forget that it's a remake.
Don't Insult the Fans of the Original by Creating a New Product from the Old
Jem and the Holograms example again, there's nothing in that live action film that has anything whatsoever to do with the original, it shouldn't even be allowed the tagline Holograms. Micheal Bay Ninja Turtles and All Female Ghostbusters springs to mind as well.
Do Keep the Iconic Theme Songs, if you can't, Make a New Iconic Theme Song
Fans will always identify a cartoon by it's iconic theme and keeping the theme song is essential for that, if it cannot be done due to copyright or some rubbish like that, then make something that does the same job.
and finally
Don't Ever, Ever Remake Anything that Hasn't had enough Spotlight to Justify a Return
The Kickstarter trend is notorious for this in bringing back something that hasn't seen the light of day for years and then some clever sod decides it should come back and actually remakes it which I guess is the story surrounding the Rainbow Brite reboot. I'm not sure how much in demand the Raccoons is in it's native Canada, I imagine a certain Canadian I know can answer that for me but for other examples like Rainbow Brite and Jem and the Holograms, there are so few people wanting those shows back that in actually doing it you've pretty much tripped before you've started. It's also not a good idea to remake something that hasn't been relevant for 20 years, five years is the longest any cartoon should wait for a reboot, it's still relevant and will be more accepted as some of the fans are still around and you have more options to tweak it. Wait too long and your stuck with a current Generation who'll spend more time asking their parents why they are so interested in their cartoons or why your so angry at something your kid clearly enjoys, or my favorite one, telling off your kid for liking a new version of a cartoon you enjoyed. Yes that really happens.
So you probably have some clear understanding of why the Raccoons reboot doesn't work and why certain other shows do or don't work.
