Now for a look at a Sanrio film with quite the interesting story.
In the dark ages of animation, Disney weren't pulling the numbers they used to, animation was still expensive and the 70s were ruled by the TV cartoons by Hanna Barbara who could pump out more than what Disney could do on one film. Seeing a gap in the market, Sanrio decided to have a crack at it by making a Fantasia style movie based on old Greek stories from Metamorphosis titled Metamorphosis but instead of classical music the film would use contemporary rock music of the era.
But upon it's release, the film bombed so badly that it was never seen again, so the film got recut with a different soundtrack now using disco music along with narration from Peter Ustinov (Prince John from Disney's Robin Hood). The name of the film became Winds of Change. The five stories are Actaeon, Orpheus and Eurydice, House of Envy, Perseus and finally Phaeton. The first three being Greek Tragedies, one being an action story, the final one being a cautionary tale. All the roles are covered by the same designed boy and girl with only the boy being named as Wondermaker outside his roles as other Greek figures. All the stories are narrated rather sarcastically at times by Ustinov and acts as the sole dialogue as it was intentionally meant to be a music only production. I can see why it didn't click with audiences as Greek Tragedies make up the bulk of the production and lacks much of Fantasia's artistic visuals and soundtrack. The Disco tracks are a little distracting as some songs have lyrics.
It was a worthy attempt from Sanrio but it's lack of diverse stories, unfitting soundtrack and characters being copy and paste into every story doesn't exactly shout the same standards as Fantasia with the only good part being Peter Ustinov's sarcastic narration; I'm fairly convinced he recorded it drunk. As a side note, the original cut has never been seen outside it's theatre premiere, it's unlikely it'll ever see the light of day as it's been well over 40 years now.
Final Verdict: The story behind the film is way more interesting than the film itself. It's nothing special and the only real novelty is the narration.
To continue adding to the request I'm now doing Haikyu.
So yeah it's fine.......
Alright, alright.
Hinata is obsessed with Volleyball having witnessed a guy with his same height excel at spiking leading Hinata to do the same. Having had a difficult time getting support in middle school, he finally gets a game against a top team led by a setter called Kageyama who earned himself the nickname King for constantly berating his team for mistakes or not even keeping up with him. Despite losing, Hinata hopes to join the Karasuno High School Volleyball Squad only to reunite with Kageyama as teammates. Although they have difficulty working together, they start forming a team with the other Volleyball club members as they aim to get Karasuno back on top with all the trials that come with it.
This is a sports anime alright, the only way this looks any different to the others is the fact that Volleyball is under used as a proper sport outside Beach Volleyball, so actually seeing it properly without the bikini clad waifus distracting me is actually appreciated for once as I wasn't that bad a player myself.
But we need characters and thankfully Haikyu delivers with a decent selection of them, while some borrowing heavily from well established archetypes but not being too similar to the point that none of them stand out.
I only have two complaints, it's length being one as I feel that long sports shows really struggle to stay interesting after achieving the initial goal. The other is that I really wanted to know more about Hinata leading up to High School. It's hinted at many times that he had to practice with the girl's team and they look like really good characters, so a prequel or maybe that should've been season 1, then I'd probably be a lot more into Hinata's character.
The dub is decent and well cast.
Final Verdict: it's decent and does it's job fine, it's hardly groundbreaking and has gone on longer than it maybe needs to but it's still a good watch. I may add to this as I go through the later seasons if anything pops up that alters my opinion.
I just finished this one so lets see what it offers.
Kakei has an affinity for books and is told about a mysterious library that can change the fate of many people. At the huge academy of Shiomoi, a premonition of an accident leads him to save an introverted girl named Shirasaki, a girl eager to have a happy school life forming the odd jobs style club of Shimoi Happy Project, joined by other members hoping it can change them for the better. Over seeing the school is a mysterious entity known as the Shepherds said to change the paths of students usually communicated through E-Mail. What link does the Shepherds have with the magic Library that Kakei seeks?
So many times this show was about to hit a bad trope only to avoid it. It's pacing has issues as it seemingly jumps from character to character in order to try and resolve their individual plots often forgetting some characters in the process. When the main plot does kick in, it feels a bit late in the series and the laws of the so called Shepherds while interesting can also be sloppy in execution.
If not for some genuinely decent characters I could easily write it off as Generic School Anime No.8 but on it's own merits it at least tries to keep my attention.
No dub that I know of but I'm not expecting it to be groundbreaking if their was.
Final Verdict: It's serviceable, mostly because I like the cast but it's own universal laws are flimsy due to poor pacing and an inability to keep focus on a single character at a time.
Now let's crank it up a notch as I start putting out more reviews.
Machine Island is isolated from the rest of the world hidden by a huge gravity curtain, it is a warzone for supremacy as three factions fight for dominance, the Kiba Army made up of bandits and mercenaries, the Garan Army made up of trained soldiers and ruled more or less like an empire and the Hachiryoukaku Army made up of Athenian style women that wouldn't look out of place in Wonder Woman. With the constant fighting, the Gravity Curtain starts becoming unstable which would eventually lead to the planet's destruction. Left with no choice, the outsiders WSO send in the Skull Force to stop the Gravity Curtain but the main force they send is struck down leaving only Yuuki alive along with Death Caprice Squad, two unhinged mercenaries with a penchant for violence piloting the devil like robot Mazinkaiser who starts tearing up the war faction by faction with only Hachiryoukaku being smart enough to cooperate with Skull Force. With the mechanized persona of the devil in play, will the planet be saved from destruction?
It's stupid and manly and I love it, a testosterone filled OVA with killer battles that doesn't require much thought to enjoy but I still wish that certain plot elements were explored such as
Who are Skull Squad?
How did Death Caprice Squad acquire Mazinkaiser?
What is Ryou's past and why is he so easily triggered by it?
Why did Aira's sister Himiko join the Garan Army?
It's these questions I would like to be answered, so I at least know why certain elements are exactly what they are.
The dub is fine, some poor acting choices along with some very wooden performances but for the most part it's fine.
Final Verdict: Stupid manly mecha series let down by a lack of explanation for it's plotholes, not a total loss as for the most part it plays well as an action series.
Just assume that most reviews will be drip fed from now on.
Mint is the princess of the Dream Kingdom who has been tasked with restoring her Kingdom as the human world has stopped dreaming. She goes to the human world using her Aunt's Gift Shop as a base to use her magic to help humans dream again with the help of human friends Plum and Nut.
This is a magical girl show that has more in common with the original concept of the genre being magical girl helps solve problems with magic and a bit of mischief. It's welcome to see after the 80s gave us the peak of magical idols before returning to this genre. Mint's design even looks 90s despite airing in 1990 when the trend was still on baby steps and not fully established. Each episode is pleasant and non-offensive and is a great casual watch.
Pity the animation is awful.
I normally overlook animation, particularly in older shows as it's usually the cost that really hinders quality and that cost hasn't really changed much over the years but Dragonballz was already a year old when this was released so there really wasn't many excuses for such shoddy animation.
No dub, but is in plenty of European languages particularly Italian.
Final Verdict: Badly let down by shoddy inconsistent animation, otherwise it's a decent anime.
