Hi I'm Dranzerstorm
You may remember me as a regular contestant on the caption battle contest.
Welcome to Retro Retrospective, my world dedicated to the old guard of the Otaku world; expect some reviews of the old & obscure, and in-depth geeky knowledge with the occasional top ten and I now have a logo.
Little info about me
Well I'm British and I'm in to all things animated and nostalgia.
I've grown up with every cartoon going and have watched hundreds of anime.
Oh and to answer a question I was asked once, no I don't wear glasses in real life, I would wear Loke's sunglasses though.
Let it be said that you can learn just as much from an anime as you can anything else, so today I'll be reviewing Bottle Fairy, this won't be like the Snow Fairy Review.
The story revolves around four fairies named Kururu, Chiriri, Sarara & Hororo who live with a college student simply referred to as Sensei-San; the fairies are learning about Japanese culture with a little help from nosy neighbor Tama-Chan. There are 13 episodes that cover all 12 months on the calender along with a bonus final episode. (No Spoilers, Sorry)
Easy to follow premise, it's just your basic learning show and it is done really well; you feel at home with these fairies if your used to the likes of Lucky Star, K-On & Azumanga Daioh which also feature just a group of girls as the main cast.
A large part of the humor comes from the misinterpretations of the cultures they try to imitate, but it's entirely innocent and surprisingly human which I'll explain in a moment, the dub is passable but doesn't do the show justice as Japanese culture doesn't always translate well into English.
As for the fairies themselves you have a typical mix of female tropes, the happy one, the shy one, the tough one & the weird one; they all compliment each other nicely and create a good balance, no one really stands out as the main character so it's nice to see that the others aren't just there to support the lead.
Now to explain the human bit.
Bottle Fairy could easily pass for a young kids show as the content is easy for a child to understand but not really for anyone younger, the fairies role-playing isn't much different to playing house in real life, and their lack of understanding holds a certain innocence to it much in the same way an actual child learns a bit more each time they play, and that's where the show is at it's strongest. Very few forms of media for children show characters going through the learning experience, in fact I accuse the industry of making their characters too perfect with Nickelodeon & Disney the biggest offenders.
Final Verdict: It's a nice little series, it doesn't out stay it's welcome and you feel a little happier knowing that the fairies will succeed, just make sure you watch the subbed version for the best experience.
Having re-watched Kung-Fu Panda I've come to realize how silly the concept sounds but the film is still awesome, so this time here are the top 10 Anime Characters you should never underestimate.
Rules are that if there is more than one person in the franchise I'll judge the group instead of certain individuals. This doesn't look like a Commander of a Nuclear Submarine
10. Yurika Misumaru from Martian Successor Nadesico
A ditz will always be a ditz but Yurika makes up for much of her short falls by being tactically gifted, the fact that the Nadesico survived it's voyage is testament to the abilities of it's captain.
9. Every Gundam Pilot from the Gundam Franchise
You'd feel pretty stupid if you came back to your commander and say you've been shot down by a kid, although in the Gundam Universe if you did that exact same thing, you'd be given a medal for bravery.
8. L from Death Note
An insomniac who sits funny, eats cake all day and looks more like death than the actual death gods; worked out who Kira was straight away.
7. Sunako Nakahara from The Wallflower
Sunako's position as the loner into all things horror can instantly transform into a beautiful bad ass complete with entirely different art style to emphasize the change in emotions.
6. The Strawhats except Zoro from One Piece
If you ask an outsider to identify a pirate on a picture of the Strawhats crew, 100% of the time they'll pick Zoro as he's the only one who looks like a pirate despite not originally being a pirate at all. Those Bounties aren't just for show, they are entirely justified.
5. Negi Springfield from Negima
A 10-year old boy wizard in charge of a class of 31 teenage girls of various descriptions, can defeat vampires, high ranking wizards, samurai, demons and a hack character with a million cheat codes. (That's how Chisame described Jack Rakan)
4. Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist
He's short, very short, something he takes offense to on a regular basis but take off the red coat and you see the Automail arm and you'll know that this guy will take you down.
3. Simon from Gurren Lagann
When you start watching Gurren Lagann everyone will believe that Kamina is the main character until he suddenly dies. (Hardly a spoiler)
Simon has to pick up the pieces and after a Shinji moment not only takes Kamina's place but surpasses him, and here we thought we'd get another Shinji.
2. Teletha Testarossa from Full Metal Panic
She's a 16 year old with poor coordination, a childlike voice and behaves like a school girl. Yet she's the captain of a Nuclear Submarine! She dwarfs Yurika in military knowledge and is more capable than most of the Gundam cast.
1. Mitsukuni "Honey" Haninozuka from Ouran High School Host Club
Honey looks like a kid despite being the oldest of the group, he likes plush toys and cake, yet he's so strong that the rest of the world judges him as a weapon of mass destruction if he so much as release his full power.
This feature covers certain topics too small to make into a full post, the name "Endless Wardrobe" refers to my own wardrobe that housed my entire collection of anime dvds before I moved them under the bed and is now a place for videos I only keep because there is nothing to replace them with, so here begins the Endless Wardrobe.
Needless did it first
Anyone who watched the Needless anime the first time around complained about the apparent blatant ripoff of Gurren Lagann, however the Needless manga predates anything Gurren Lagann related and you'll find that Gurren Lagann ripped off Needless' unique designs. Saying that Gurren Lagann is still better.
Wrath of Tobias
Ash Ketchum has had his fair share of defeats in Pokemon Leagues over the years but by far the most controversial loss was against silver haired Gary-Stu character Tobias near the end of the Sinnoh League. He had largely no background, very little characterization and has a team of Legendary Pokemon. Even after Darkrai is finally defeated he pulls out a friggin Latios. It's unclear whether the rest of his team were legendary Pokemon or not but the point is it ruined what was a really good series but the gamers are as much to blame for this as well. Tobias represents what a lot of Pokemon Trainers get to in the games long after finishing, beating everyone with a group of legendaries and standing above all else looking down on the region with a troll like smile.
I'm guilty of this as well, especially in the first few games, I'm so confident in certain Pokemon that I get this happen when they lose.
Goku & God
Anyone still keeping up with the Dragonballz franchise is familiar with the new anime film that comes out next week in Japan in which Goku battles the god of destruction. Everyone should know the Dragonballz story by now but at this point I can't believe how much it still goes on nearly 20 years after the anime finished, not to mention how embarrassing the stories have got.
Within the last few years, Vegeta has a brother, Bardock is thrown back in time where he is actually the legendary super saiyan, a live action film happened.........And now to make sure trolls always win "Who'd win fantasy battles" argument, Goku now fights and will surely defeat a god. Toriyama please kill this franchise.
I've recovered enough to start reviewing again despite coughing up lungs as I'm typing, so I've got prepared the first of many reviews of the Sakura Wars Franchise, first up it's the 3rd OVA Ecole De Paris
Before we begin I must note that every OVA in this franchise is part of the canon of the video game series and each episode shows a particular part of the story not seen in the games and therefore each episode doesn't directly link to the last one.
We start off learning about how lead female Erica Fontaine joins the Paris Floral Assault Unit and her meeting with Glycine Bleumer. (Yes she's named after a chemical used in food additives, cosmetics and a finishing agent for metal)
We learn a lot about the clueless Erica in one episode including her trademark stage performance, her narcolepsy, her love of cake, the tendency to pray to angels spinning around her own head and getting arrested for accidentally running into Lobelia Carlini. (More on her later) Her ditzyness doesn't last long when a demon comes along and Erica & Glycine fight it, Erica proves to be remarkably capable in combat, more so than the original Floral Assault Unit on their first attempt.
We move on to Episode 2 and Ichiro Ohgami has magically arrived along with child character Coquelicot, but the episode focuses on how Lobelia Carlini joins the team. At the start we find out that she's a notorious criminal with demon like powers who every so often plays the Virgin Mary to depressed men. (It makes more sense in context)
Catching Lobelia however is a different matter, so the commander of the unit decides to trap Lobelia in a town and destroy it around her to make it hard to escape while using chess as a visual aid to display the tactics. Even that wasn't enough so the vice commander takes her down with a sniper rifle containing a paralyzing bullet. At this moment we come to my favorite quote.
"Actually my aim was off, I was trying to kill her, after all I do value my own life"
That was the vice commander's words when it was mistakenly believed that he missed on purpose. That is a lesson to all characters who mistakenly let villains live and wonder why they get their arses kicked afterwards.
The final episode features an epic battle against a rogue test armor possessed by the enemy, also Ohgami is trying to write a letter to his commander about how things are going, (Hanabi also magically joins the group) we get a bigger insight into the character's motives and personalities and it's nice to see a selfish character among the group who's only doing it to free herself from a lengthy prison sentence.
Erica & Ohgami battle the rogue armor while the others do their powers combined act to help them; I must mention the dub at this point, compared to the other dubs within the franchise this is probably the best one but doesn't lend itself well to the fight scene in the episode.
We end the OVA with an image of a giant revolver underneath the Arc De Triomphe, (let that sink in for a second) remember this and the name "Douglas Stewart" on the rogue armor for another time. (If mentioned in comments please use spoiler blanks)
This is nice OVA series but like the others it already expects you to have played the game beforehand and with no localization it becomes extremely hard to understand. Plus it's missing this scene.
No one is that perky in the morning but considering she sleeps for roughly 15 hours a day it's any wonder she's always perky.
Final Verdict: It's worth a watch but can lead to the expensive hobby of game importing, and while Japanese Dreamcasts & PS2s are surprisingly common the prices aren't.
Villain Songs are a core part of any good Animation production whether it be "Poor Unfortunate Souls" or the gripping "Hellfire" but some are just bizarre full stop so here are the Top 10 Most Bizarre Villain Songs.
Rules this time that it covers all forms of Animation including anime so lets begin.
10. "Money is Such a Beautiful Word" from Tom & Jerry: The Movie
This song tried to be too much like a Disney Villain song but fails to hit the mark, it doesn't help that you're singing with a lawyer with a creepy voice. Although a fat dog dancing with his Skateboard certainly comes under weird.
9. "Nothing Can Stop the Smooze" from My Little Pony: The Movie
Behold as we see the Pokemon Muk in his role before breaking into Pokemon. Made even more appealing by the ship powered by enormous bra sails.
8. "In the Dark of the Night" from Anastasia
Apparently the underworld is full of singing bugs which takes a lot off the effect of this awesome villain song.
7. "Team Rocket's Theme Song" from Pokemon
Sang every now and again as a change from the motto this awesome song features gratuitous rolling and strobe light effects. Although with Team Rocket being more dignified these days we no longer see any songs.
6. "Elmer Fudd: Wabbit Slayer" from Looney Tunes
This kind of cheats seeing as it was never seen in an actual cartoon but makes up for it by being awesome none the less. Have a see for yourself.
It's a fan made video but the song is still awesome.
5. "Yami no Baroque" from Mermaid Melody
Courtesy of the Black Beauty Sisters who are rather close for sisters, this song plays as the villain's main form of attack. What makes this funnier to watch is that their song is better than the Mermaid's songs.
4. "All Villain Songs" from Nerima Daikon Brothers
Every villain has a song in this anime, although my personal favorite comes from the fortune teller with the lyric "Cosmic Erection", this is the same series that contains an all singing, all dancing song for withdrawing money.
3. "I Can Change" from South Park: The Movie
Saddam Hussein can really bust moves in this film by break dancing, all the while trying to convince Satan he's not as bad as he really is.
2. "Evilmainya" from Freddie as FRO7
Singer Grace Jones singing as a cobra to dancing gestapo and KKK members. In fact TV Tropes described it better with "KKK Members on Roller Skates doing the Macarena", let that sink in for a second.
1. "The Music Meister" from Batman: Brave and the Bold
But nothing creates such a scene than the Music Meister, one of the most well received non-canon Batman villains since Harley Quinn back in the 90s cartoon. The whole episode is a musical with some brilliant singing from the Meister himself, in fact he almost succeeds on a global level by turning the world into a musical crime fest, before receiving the Batman trademark hook.
If there's any I missed do say so and I'll try and reply, see ya next time.
