Well, here’s something I’d been planning on doing for ages. Reviews of DVDs that I’ve never seen.
With additional commentary from Kenshiro.
Guyver: The Bioboosted Armour Vol.1 (ADV)
Guyver was one of those shows that formed the foundation of the UK anime scene in the 90s. Manga sold the original series cheap and in great numbers. £5.99 would get you half an hour of bioboosting mutant crushing action in the 1989 OAV style that you demanded. This is the 26 episode TV series from 2005. I’m guessing this is going to be a 6 volume series, seeing that it’s an ADV release. The director is 90s AIC stalwart Katsuhito Akiyama (Armitage, Magical Project S, El Hazard TV, Dual!, Battle Athletes TV), but don’t hold that against him, he also did Bubblegum Crisis and Gall Force too. And Thundercats. Still, this whole series is likely to set you back a little under £90, which is too pricey for a TV show. Wait for a boxset if you want a bioboosting hole in your soul filled. Me, I’d probably pick it up for £20 for the whole thing.
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Otogi Zoshi: Vol.5 (Manga)
All I know about this show is that it has a nice Opening animation by Tetsuya Nishio. Apparantly it’s about the Heian period of Japanese history for the first half, then about the modern day reincarnations of the characters featured in the first half. It’s Production IG, which sometimes seems to be enough for something to get attention. The director Mizuho Nishikubo really doesn’t have anything screaming off their cv that makes me want to watch it. I’d probably want to see some of it to pique my interest, and I’m certainly not paying £15 to do so.
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Coyote Ragtime Show Vol.2 (ADV)
A twelve episode show from ufotable.
“Cowboy Bebop was great, we should try and make something like that”
“Yes, but it really wasn’t that popular in Japan, are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Well we could add a ridiculous of amount of female characters of varying ages and character designs to attempt to appeal to every conceivable aspect of otaku libido”
“YES! You can’t spell money without MOE!”
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Kekko Kamen: Anime Classics Edition (ADV)
As you may or may not know, Go Nagai is something of guilty pleasure of mine. And they probably don’t come guiltier than Kekko Kamen, his parody of Moonlight Mask (Gekko Kamen). It features a naked superheroine who battles the perverted teachers at “Toenail of Satan’s Spartan Institute of Higher Education”. So pretty much a combination of two major Nagai themes – tits and hating on school. But don’t mistake it for full blown ero-anime/hentai – the original manga ran in Monthly Shonen Jump. And this is why Nagai is awesome, because he actually understands what the kids want. Tits and hating on school.
It was released with an English dub in 1996 by East 2 West Films. And if this was that dub I’d be all over it, featuring as it did a villain who sounded like Sean Connery and the translation of Kekko Kamen’s ultimate attack being “Super Cunt-striction”. Puerile, I know, but the whole thing had a fun vigour to it that is sorely lacking in most leaden anime dubs.
And I am easily amused by puerile things.
Looking at the BBFC site, I see this ADV release is uncut whereas the E2W one wasn’t. Given the date, I wonder if it was cut for nunchuka content rather than the comedy bondage.
