One of the greatest anime movies ever?

Lum - Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984)
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

I just recently rewatched one of my all-time favorite Japanese cartoons for the first time in over five years. It was the second theatrical release based on Rumiko Takahasi's first hit comic book series, "Lum--Urusei Yatsura" (UY means "Obnoxious Aliens" in Japanese).

"Beautiful Dreamer" is every bit as good as I remember it. I don't necessarily recommend it to those unfamiliar with the cast of the "Lum" comic books, but I nonetheless place it among my all-time favourite animated features.

In this curious film, Lum, Shinobi, Ataru, and the rest of the central cast of the series find themselves the only beings left in perhaps the entire world. They later realize that the entire world has been reduced to a 2 km area around Ataru's house... and that's when things start to get really strange.


This film grabbed my attention immediately. The plot seemed to be something well beyond the standard 'Lum' wacky comedy that I'm used to from the graphic novels... there was a mystery here, and from the outset I was interested in seeing how it would be resolved. As the mystery deepend, the film actually started to get rather creepy--something I'd never thought possible for this particuarly property--and the mix of humour and mild horror was extremely effective. Even as the mystery reached its resolution, the creepiness deepened and for a time I wondered if it was going to be possible for the filmmakers to restore the light-hearted Lum-verse to its previous state.

They managed to do just that, and with a very ... and with a highly satisfying ending. What's even more remarkable, over the course of 'Beautiful Dreamer,' they breathed more life into Lum and Ataru than I thought could be possible; they've always been rather one dimensional characters to me--not it a bad way, but that's all they needed to be. But in 'Beautiful Dreamer,' we are shown another facet of Ataru, and Lum's character deepens as well.





Click here to read reviews of graphic novels by Rumiko Takahashi at the Shades of Gray blog.

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A fact about "adult" anime....

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Inferior remake of an excellent animated series

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku: Dash! - Vol. 1 (1998)
Rating: Two of Ten Stars

Fourteen-year-old Ryonoske has a problem: His raging hormones have him lusting for the orphaned amnesiac girl--nicknamed Nuku-Nuku--that his father has brought in as a house-keeper. Unfortunately, she is completely oblivious to his desire for her... and in fact any of the designs that men and others have on her. Because Nuku-Nuku is secretly a hi-tech battledroid that Ryonoske's father has stoken from the arms-manufacturer that his wife works for! To make matters more complicated, his wife is put in charge of finding and recovering the missing battledroid.

I loved the original six-episode "All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku" series--I thought it was hilarious, with characters that were sweet and likable... even the bad guys! It's a great series for both adults and kids. "Dash!" is a sad, distorted shadow of that original series.

"All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku: Dash!" is a remake of the original series that features the same characters, but their posiitons in the story have changed, some of their motivations have changed, and Nuku-Nuku has been completely reinvented. Yeah, she's still a robot with a partial cat-brain, but she's also a superhero, complete with transformation and the ability to fire ill-defined explosive beams from her hands.

Everything about "Dash" is either inferior or tacky when compared to the original series. All sweetness has been removed from the series, with the transformation of Ryunoske from a boy from a broken home who wants to see his parents reunite, to a horny 14-year-old who is lusting after Nuku-Nuku. Nuku-Nuku herself is little more than an empty-headed, "perfect woman" whose role barely extends beyond providing jiggling boobs and fight scenes. (Worse, much of the boob jiggling is provided through footage that is recycled at least once every episode.) To add insult to injury, the animation quality is inferior to the original series as well.

As much as I loved the original "Nuku-Nuku," I dislike this remake. Like the "Tenchi" series degraded from the original to be worse with each successive remake, so it seems is the "Nuku-Nuku" property. While the "Tenchi" remakes at least managed to keep their heart--remaining tales of family and friendship--"Nuku-Nuku" was stripped of everything that made it good right out of the remake's starting gate. The creators giving Nuku-Nuku a boob job and a dye-job were just surface reflections of the way the remake abandoned everything that made the initial series worth watching.

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Fabulous anime fantasy series

Mask of Zeguy (1997)
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars


"Mask of Zeguy" was originally made as a two-part animated series, although here it is contained on one disc. It features a solid storyline about Miki, a teenaged dscendent of a powerful priestess who is is drawn into the World of the Clouds, a magical realm where she becomes embroiled in a battle to save both it and Earth.

This is a low-priced DVD, with good animations quality, interesting ideas, and plenty of action and twists and turns within a story that should appeal to both girls and boys.

One of the things that I found most appealing was the design of the World in the Clouds... it was a fascinating "what if Leonardo DaVinchi's more offbeat creations actually worked"/magic steam-punk kind of place.

The only caveat to "Mask of Zeguy" is that its storyline assumes alot of knowledge of Japanese history and classic poetry. Some of the figures that Miki meets are well-known Japanese historical/mythical figures, and some of the villians' plans are likewise probably only fully understood with some grounding in Japanese culture. That said, I don't think I have much more knowledge of Japanese history and culture than most Americans, and I enjoyed "Mask of Zeguy," so I'm sure others will, too.

On a note that isn't related so much to the cartoon as it is to its marketing, "Mask of Zeguy" was originally released in the U.S. as simply "Zeguy" (back in 1997). That title makes alot more sense than that given to the current edition--"Zeguy" is a Japanese word that translates, roughly, into "Wow!" or "Amazing!" There is no character in the show named Zeguy, nor is there any "Mask of Wow" anywhere in the program. It looks to me like someone in the marketing department decided the title needed to be punched up, and that he was making his decisions based solely on promo art for the product.

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'Explorer Woman Ray' is two-parter that starts strong, but fades fast

In this two-part direct-to-video animated series, a pair of twin sisters join up with adventuring archelologist Ray. In the process, they avenge dead parents and keep a powerful, ancient South American treasure from falling into the hands of those who would use it for evil.

The first half of this hour-long (the first episode) tape is pretty entertaining. It's got good animation, nice Indiana Jones-like adventuring, and a nice conflict between Ray and her overbearing, blondhaired arch-nemesis. The second half (the second episode), unfortunately, shows a sharp drop in animation quality. There's more action and drama than in the first half, but the bad animation weighs it down, and it manages to pull the whole package down from what could have been a Six Rating to a Four.

(From the Inappropriate Thought Department: I keep wanting to pronounce the name of the busty lead character in a fashion with the old racist jokes involving "flied lice." :) )

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Akira, Animated Feature Film (1988)
Rating: Three of Ten Stars

In a dark future, Japanese youth gangs ride around on motorcycles and scream each other's names in high-pitched voices. Meanwhile, military men do McGruff the Crime Dog imitations. Oh, and pale psychics cause freaky things to happen and inanimate objects to attack, and some youth gang member gets amazing powers that may destroy all of Japan.

Yes... it's the storyline of "Akira", the most overrated Japanese cartoon ever. I saw it in the movie theatre when it was first released in the US, and it put me off the whole manga/anime thing for several years thereafter. "If THAT was the best, then what sort of crap must the other material be?" I thought. Thankfully, I discovered the works of Kosuke Fujishima, Masamune Shirow and Rumiko Takahashi, material that truly *is* among the best that Japanese pop culture had to offer.


"Akira" does have some impressive animation, but the story and script are very lacking. I really have no idea why people were so impressed with this badly put together mess.

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Slayers: The Motion Picture

"Slayers: The Motion Picture" is set some time before Lina hooks up with Gourry and the other characters from the three seasons of the "Slayers" television series. She is a little younger--but still feared as a short-tempered and powerful spellcaster-- and she is the reluctant partner of Naga, a lanky sorceress whose bust size is in direct inverse proportion to her IQ. The pair travel to a distant island where they become embroiled in a mystery surrounding the butchering of an elf village before recorded history.

This was a so-so effort that is something that is great for the kids and presented all the basics of the "Slayers" series in a fairly concise package. Still, I don't think the package was concise enough. One of the things I've liked about as much of the 'Slayers' series I've seen so far is that the episodes are all swiftly paced and tightly plotted. Gag follows upon gag upon fight scene... there's hardly ever a quiet moment. There were almost too many quiet moments in "The Motion Picture."

The movie also failed to capitilize on some of the cooler elements that were introduced; wouldn't a bit more time spent in the past have been more interesting than beating up local thugs on the pier? I for one would have liked to learned more about the elves and the kid who appeared to be an ancestor of Gourry.

Despite my complaints, I think this is a worthwhile animated film. Fans of fantasy, fans of quality animation (as one might expect from a theatrical release, the animation in "Slayers: The Motion Picture" is gorgeous), and fans of Japanese cartoons in general will find much to enjoy here. It might also serve as a fine way to introduce your friends to "The Slayers" franchise, even if I think the TV series is vastly superior to this film.

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Nice boil-down of Fujishima's classic series

Ah! My Goddess: The Movie (2000)
Rating: Six of Ten Stars



In 'Ah! My Goddess: The Movie,' the world is threatened by a god who wishes to create a reality where no mortals have to suffer. He forces an unwitting Belldandy--a goddess who has been bound through love to Japanese college student Keiichi--to serve as the main vehicle of his plot.
The movie features all the characters from the long-running comic book and graphic novel series (published in America by Dark Horse Comics and translated as "Oh My Goddess!"), including recent additions to the cast such as Belldandy's rival, the goddess Peorth and the various angels tied to Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld. In many cases, the film assumes that the viewer knows who these characters are, which in my mind is its main flaw. While readers of the graphic novels and comic books can be somewhat up-to-date--as of this writing, "The Fourth Goddess" where Peorth first appears has been released, but the Whirlwind motor company that's referred in the film to will still be an unknown if one only reads them and not the monthly issues--and there are a host of characters that will remain mysterious to those who may be coming to this film from the other animated episodes alone. If the filmmakers had weeded down the cast a bit, there would have been time to provide brief introductions to everyone and the film would have been better for it.

The animation quality is very good, taking advantage of both traditional and computer animation to convey the strange power of the film's supernatural beings who live by the addage "sufficiently advanced technology is equal to magic"; in the "Ah! My Goddess" universe, reality is maintained by a super-computer running incredibly advanced programs, and all supernatural beings are, basically, "remote terminals." The animators have remained true to creator Kosuke Fujishima's character designs and mix of cartoony and hyper-realistic art, and the characters of the film seem very much grounded in a world not far removed from our own. The result is a very attractive-looking film that captures the look of Fujishima's comic art very nicely.

The English-language dubbing is better than average, but I think the casting could have been better. Belldandy is entirely too whiny and Urd isn't husky/assertive enough from how they should sound based on their portrayals in the comic.

Story-wise, the film also captures the feel of the comic quite nicely, with the real plot revolving around Belldandy and Keiichi's love once again surviving supernatural challenges and emerging reconfirmed and even stronger than before. (No, that's not really a spoiler; anyone who has even passing familiarity with "Oh My Goddess" and romantic films of this nature go in expecting a happy ending.) Unfortunately, the story fails to successfully revolve all of its subplots and themes by the time the film is over. The chief of these is the race that the NIT Motorclub is preparing for during the film. It's there to underscore the fact that Keiichi and Belldandy are the perfect couple, and it should have been returned to at the end. (Eliminating some of the characters who don't play any role in the story but who are just there because they're part of the graphic novels might have given the tme needed to properly wrap up the film's loose elements.)

The flaws of this film balance its good parts, hence the Three Stars (an average rating). I recommend it highly to fans of romantic comedies and the "Oh My Goddess!" series... but I do so warning you that it is far from a perfect work.

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Fatal Flaw: Takes silly concept seriously

Variable Geo (1999)
Rating: Four of Ten Stars



In the animated 'Variable Geo,' waitresses who are also experts in exoteric martial arts styles battle in a series of matches to be named the world's battle queen. There's a darker side to the Variable Geo tournaments... and our heroines end up running headlong into it.

I thought 'Variable Geo' sounded like a hoot, so I picked up up. The first ten minutes are the tone I would have expected... but after that, the concept of warrior waitresses is started to be taken seriously not only by the story, but, the episodes assume, by the viewer as well. It's a flaw that turns what could have been a fun romp into a rather excrutiating 80 minutes.

To make matters worse, the first three episodes end on a cliffhanger. I imagine this means there's a 'Variable Geo II' on the horizon. It's a sequel that I at least will be ignoring.

On the techincal front, the animation was average and the voice acting (in the English dubbed version) was slightly above average.

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