Angel Cop: Brand Advertisement

A long time ago, way back in the 90's, I recall my dear friend Daniel telling me that he had seen a Japanese animation called Angel Cop. Never had heard of it before. I don't know if he was being polite to the owner of the VHS fansub, but his impression was sort of positive. Daniel, WTF? When you're young, many times you enjoy bad stuff for lack of reference. He still hadn't begun his love for trash media while being brainwashed by hours of the most ridiculous infomercials selling stupid Ginsu knives, Vivarina pantyhoses, etc. Fucking Tony Little. Anyway, I also hadn't seen much anime, but I already thought that stuff like Genocyber and M.D.Geist were extremely lame and stupid.

I recently watched Angel Cop for the first time. My impression was that someone was trying to rip-off Ghost in the Shell in the most imbecilic possible way. For an entertaining review, checkout episode 57 of the AWO podcast. Daryl Surat suggested watching it with subtitles once, then with the dub, and then with dub + subs to compare. I really don't have the guts nor the time to try them all, so I watched just the dub with the subs on. OMFG. This anime already has one of the stupidest plots ever made, the dub manages to somehow make it even worse.

Angel Cop has one of the weirdest brand advertisements I've ever seen in my life. Raiden is a special agent turned into a cyborg. During a fight in the fifth episode, he takes this laser shooting device from within his metal hand. There is a quick close-up as seen below. What the hell?

Detroit Metal City

Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain poster featured on the episode 4A of Studio 4°C's comedy, Detroit Metal City. Link to the original poster.

Touch

Summer of 42 (1971) poster found on the sixth episode of Touch, a 1985 romance/baseball TV series. Asakura Minami asks if Uesugi Katsuya, her childhood friend, wants to watch the film with her. Unfortunately he already has a date. Below is a quick montage for a better view I did. This is the original poster.


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On episode 44, Tatsuya and Minami are going to a movie theater together. On their way, there is a billboard of Cocoon (1985). Link to the original poster.

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On episode 54, classes end for that year. Tatsuya and Minami agree to watch a movie that just premiered, The Natural (1984). In front of the theater, a poster of Roman Holiday (1953).


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Below is an image from the 1998 movie Touch: Miss Lonely Yesterday. The outdoor on the left named River is a reference to Six Days, Seven Nights (1998).

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Another image from the Miss Lonely Yesterday movie. It's written Summer of Angels, obvious reference to City of Angels (1998). The drawing of Nicolas Cage looks like Thom Yorke.

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On episode 33, the new transfer student, Yoshida Takeshi, lends Uesugi Tatsuya an LP. Released in 1985, Half Time was Yoshimi Iwasaki's 13th album. It contained Touch's first opening (タッチ) and ending (君がいなければ) themes. Jacket of the album.


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On episode 35, Tatsuya goes to Yoshida's house where he spots what I believe is Iwasaki Yoshimi's 20th single, タッチ.


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On episode 45, Yoshida is talking to some girls about a record he is holding. It's Yoshimi's 14th album, タッチ.

Gattai!! AWO x Mazinger

The image on the left is just a silly thing I did while brainstorming Anime World Order logo options. Usually all models are done on paper first, but at that point I had already conveyed all my ideas into bits. The original idea came from this link. Apparently the AWO crew are enjoying the new TV show, Shin Mazinger Shogeki! Z-Hen.

On their show they once questioned why is anime directly associated with mecha, a genre not so popular nowadays. Giant robots are to anime what western is to American cinema. While American animation has an incredibly strong link to slapstick humor, Japanese animation has a powerful bond to science fiction. Even if moe dominates the market today, over 50 years of mecha won't be forgotten so easily. We hope.

Nothing related, but did anyone ever notice a similarity between the opening of Cyber City Oedo 808, Burning World 〜追憶のコマンド〜, and Flashdance's What a Feeling?

Anime World Order: Character Design

I drew Daryl, Clarissa, and Gerald to compose the mock business cards for the logo proposal I sent them. They are all big fans of Osamu Tezuka so I used his character design as basis. Well, at least I tried. My biggest problem was that I couldn't find a character that matched Gerald. I ended up not basing him on anyone of Tezuka's Star System.

臀撃おしおき娘 ゴータマン

I wrote a plot summary for ANN of an animation called Dengeki Oshioki Musume Gōtaman which sort of translates to "Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gotaman". Hopefully no one will write an alternative overview to substitute this one:

Mari Amachi is a new student at the Perfect Religion Academy. When her roommate Saori Minami is kidnapped by the Black Buddha gang, Buddha himself appears before Mari. He offers her the opportunity to become Gōtaman in order to save her friend. Mari accepts the proposal and becomes Gōtaman, a sumo-belt-clad hero who fights to protect freedom of religion.

Torrent here. The guys at #anime-classic are awesomely insane.

Amuro Ray and Lalah Sune

Below are pictures from episode 41 of the original Gundam series. Last year I watched the trilogy that summarizes the entire 43 episodes of the 1979 TV series. My absolute favorite scene was the battle between Amuro Ray and Lalah Sune. I liked it so much that I ended up looking for the particular episode in which the confrontation occurred in the TV show just to compare with the trilogy version. It wasn't as impressive as the movie, but it was still very good. I can't even imagine watching this back in 1980. It must have been mind-blowing.





I prefer the movie version because the dialogue flows better. This type of scene just can't be rushed. You have to let the story breathe. The moments of silence or no one talking need to be more valued. Below are images from the third movie of the trilogy.




It's really silly the idea of rival pilots arguing with each other as they fight inside giant a mechanized armor and a spaceship, but this one is different. Not simply because both are espers, thus making sense that they are able to communicate with each other. Amuro and Lalah are definitely connected in a higher level. Maybe spiritualy is the adequate word. It's so odd that a series that tries to embrace a more realistic portrayal of war in space, displays such a romantic ideal in a glorious and elegant way. The animation in this particular scene becomes much more imaginative and metaphorical. Such tender and melancholic script. Amazing voice acting performance by Tohru Furuya (古谷徹) and Keiko Han (潘恵子). I've seen many couples in anime, but this is - without a shadow of a doubt - an affair that should not to be forgotten.

東のエデン OP

Whoa. I have never seen an opening for a Japanese animation like this. Done by Reelvision. The song is Falling Down by Oasis. Eden of the East has a jaw-dropping animation quality. Production IG is not joking around.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985)

Just finished watching the 50 episodes of the Zeta Gundam TV series, considered the finest Gundam series ever made. It's also extremely popular in Japan. From ANN: "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam currently holds the record for the highest viewership rating among all Gundam TV titles, scoring an average rating of 6.6% during its run." This is a direct sequel to the original Gundam. I watched three movies that compile that TV series not too long ago. I didn't like it all that much, but it's definitely essential to watch it at least once if you intend to understand anime today. The comparisons alone between it's creator, Yoshiyuki Tomino, and Hideaki Anno, creator of Evangelion, begin to make a whole lot of sense.

Gundam is a huge franchise that has lots of parallel universes, but the original timeline features one of the most captivating characters in anime history: Char Aznable. In Japan, he is equivalent to Darth Vader in America. He kinda reminded me of Robert Redford because of the sideburns.



Also from ANN: "Due to Bandai Entertainment's inability to secure the rights to the opening and ending theme songs outside of Asia, the U.S. release uses orchestral tracks for the opening and ending sequences." The orchestral track sort of sets a more serious mood which is really what this story is all about. Preference probably boils down to which one did you watch first. Below are both openings. It would probably be interesting to make a poll with people who never saw the show to see which one they'd prefer.

Shugo Tokumaru

Shugo Tokumaru is an amazing musician I discovered thanks to Zac Bentz. I immediately bought a CD and sent it to a dear friend and musician Lulina. Last time I phisically saw her was the day she performed at a festival called Coquetel Molotov back in 2005. I gave her a stuffed 井上トロ and in exchange I got her CD Bolhas na Pleura. Great day.

The Five Star Stories Logo

I recently watched this 1989 movie and I was mesmerized by the beautiful logo. I wonder if the author of the manga created it. Do mangakas make the logos for their stories? According to Mike Toole, anime historian, the author of Five Star Stories was trained as a fashion designer.

Anime World Order: Logo

Two suggestions for logo change of the Anime World Order podcast. From the e-mails I've exchanged with them, I get the feeling they sorta liked but... they grew attached to the one they got. I don't expect them to change anytime soon. It would be crazy if ad agencies kept proposing logo changes for companies. The desire of change must come from the client. That's why it wasn't depressing that they still chose a logo they ripped off from this. Hopefully one day they will yearn for a revamp.

I'm seriously considering removing the circle from within the letter "o". It is distracting more than explaining.




Negative version:




Applied to the website:




Fake Business Cards:





Below is the original version which the guys at mooz like more (designers... pfff). The biggest problem to me is that the name "Anime World Order" doesn't fit anywhere. It is extremely compact... maybe a little too much.

Tenchi Muyo in Love

Some posters that appear in the 1996 movie that is a sequel to the Tenchi Muyo TV series. What makes these posters a bit more interesting is that the story is set at Japan in 1970. Easy Rider, Beatles, and ウィスキー レッド (Whiskey Red) were what I could spot. IMDB points out that there is a reference to the 1987 OVA Black Magic M-66, but the only connection I could find between both animations is that Chisa Yokoyama (Sasami) acted in both.

げろたん/ゲロタン

Gerotan is an extremely peculiar fictional character. A talking baby with the katakana ゲ written on his chest who keeps throwing up every now and then. Some might remember him from episode 7 of Cromartie High School (2003).




What is interesting is that he had previously appeared on episode 39 of another animation called Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoiyo! Masaru-san (1998). Only this time his name was written in hiragana, but with the same sound pronounciation. The katakana ゲ on his chest was replaced by the equivalent hiragana げ as seen below.


What is odd is that the production of both shows was done by different companies. Cromartie was produced by Production I.G, Starchild Records, and TV Tokyo. Sexy Commando was produced by Madhouse Studios, Magic Bus, and Studio Gilleta. The ending credits in Sexy Commando don't list Gerotan's voice actress, but I suspect it's the same as the one in Cromartie, Ayaka Saito. The best evidence I could find online that she might have done the voice of Gerotan back then is that she did work in Sexy Commando. She was the narrator of episode 43 on a scene that depicts Masaru's conception seen as the legend of Momotarou.

Toradora! x Last Blade

Trying not to forget how to draw and how to use Adobe Illustrator, I recently had the urge to materialize an image in my head. It's been so long since I last drew anime characters. The last time was before the website project, which means around 2005. Above are the two main characters from the best anime I watched from 2008, Toradora. Taiga and Ryuji are dressed up as Shigen and Kaede from my favorite console fighting game, SNK's Last Blade. The title Toradora (tora=tiger and dora=dragon) made me wonder if the characters were based on the four symbols of the Chinese constellation known as Shishin. The first time I recall encountering a reference to it was in Yu Yu Hakusho, but the first time I actually realized they were popular symbols was after playing Last Blade. In the game, Kaede possesses the power of the dragon known as Seyriu while Shigen has the power of the tiger known as Byakko. Below is the intro from the game.

S.O.S.

Episode six of Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (1998-10-02 to 1999-03-26) features a very catchy song that only recently I bothered to look up information about. S.O.S. is a hit single from 1976 sung by a duo called Pink Lady. During this spectacularly simple and creative Kare Kano scene, the song starts to play and Miyazawa is aware of that. To illustrate that the music is in her head, her colors are replaced by a fast paced music sheet moving upwards. Then her face covers the entire screen and the letters "S O S" keep quickly shifting from right to left in her mouth. I absolutely love these ideas that only work in animation. When I watched it for the first time (about ten years ago), I didn't know katakana. It's written ピンク・レディー (Pinku Redi) on the text of the last image below.




What's interesting is that an animation called Alice SOS was airing in the same year (1998-04-06 to 1999-01-28). Both shows were produced by J.C. Staff and had the same person as a sound director in Alice SOS and sound producer in Kare Kano; Toru Nakano. What a surprise when not long ago I watched the opening animation of Alice SOS for the first time.