As mentioned in part one, TV Tokyo launched their late night anime with Those Who Hunt Elves. It aired on Thursdays at the fictional time of 2515 (0115 to normal people). That slot was fairly consistently given over to anime until 2002, when it got bumped for The Mini-Skirt Police variety show. REPEATS of The Mini-Skirt Police variety show.
I don’t know for sure what killed it, but looking at the ratings, when the cutesy, nothing really happens treacle of Kokoro Library was put in the slot, the ratings for what had mainly been a sci-fi/fantasy action slot halved and didn’t recover. People beat on NOIR for being some sort of harbinger of doom, and I’m not a fan of it myself, but in terms of ratings it was consistent with what had come before. It’s Kokoro Library that needs the finger pointing at it here.
So all you “moe is the cancer killing anime” believers out there, take a note of 12 October 2001, the premiere of Kokoro Library. Then tear it up and throw it away, because in part four we’ll take a look at the real problem.
Those Who Hunt Elves (1996)
Studio: Group TAC
Director: Kazuyoshi Katayama
High concept stupidity from Yu Yagami’s manga. It’s one of the many, many, many transported to another world series that were popular in the 90s. I’d say that the animation hasn’t aged well, but it was hardly state of the art in 1996. When people wax nostalgic for the pre-digital animation era, they probably should take a second look at Those Who Hunt Elves. It frequently makes the first Slayers series look like Akira. I do still like the Keiji Gotoh character designs though.
EAT-MAN (1997)
Studio: Studio Deen
Director: Koichi Mashimo
Loved the manga, but this first series was a huge let down. Completely ignored the interesting visuals and setting of the manga and instead deposited hero Bolt Crank into some terribly clichéd futuristic world. Had I been paying attention to who made what I was watching back then, I’d have never put myself through watching future Koichi Mashimo projects.
Hyper Police (1997)
Studio: Studio Pierrot
Director: Takahiro Omori
Post-Apocalypse fantasy cop show. Reminded me a fair bit of the RIFTS rpg in its hodgepodge of future dystopia, monsters and animal people. Not watched this in over a decade, but remember quite enjoying what I’d seen. Again, that had a fair bit to do with the Keiji Goto designs. Whether I’d enjoy it today, is a whole other question. Forgot that Omori (Baccano!, Durarara!!) had directed it.
Virus Buster Serge (1997)
Studio: JC Staff
Director: Masami Obari
This Masami Obari creation took an eternity between it’s announcement and actual release in the UK. And I’ve still not actually seen any of it. However as it is Obari, I will assume it features bizzare fashions, pneumatic women, periodically fantastic animation, nonsensical writing and the odd Go Nagai homage.
OUTLAW STAR (1998)
Studio: Sunrise
Director: Mitsuru Hongo
This seems to be one of those shows with a fairly large vocal fanbase of folks who are now in their mid-twenties. Never seen it myself. BECAUSE I AM OLD.
SHADOW SKILL – Eigi (1998)
Studio: Studio Deen
Director: Tsukasa Sunaga
Caught a little of this. Story didn’t interest me, but surprised to see some nice looking action animation that looked like I should recognise who animated it.
BETTERMAN (1999)
Studio: Sunrise
Director: Yoshitomo Kometani
The middle work in Yoshitomo Yonetani’s loosely connected trilogy of Sunrise productions.
EXCEL SAGA (1999)
Studio: JC Staff
Director: Shinichi Watanabe
I’m not sure how well this plays to folks who came into anime post-2000. In many ways it feels like a topper to the previous 20-30 years of anime, and I don’t know if its satire works if you aren’t familiar with that era in any way. For 1999 though, it was perfect.
Argento Soma (2000)
Studio: Sunrise
Director:Kazuyoshi Katayama
More Evangelion cloning, with some Frankenstein and ET thrown in for good luck, this time from Big O head honcho Kazuyoshi Katayama. Whatever merits this may have, history is likely to forget it in the mix of similar shows produced. And Katayama is likely to be remembered for the more idiosyncratic Big O than anything else.
Still, it’s much better looking that Katayama’s Those Who Hunt Elves adaptation.
NOIR (2001)
Studio:Bee Train
Director:Koichi Mashimo
Bee Train and Koichi Mashimo set the tone for their 00s output with this show. That tone? UTTER BOREDOM. I managed to make my way through one single episode of this at a Minami Con, and it’s an astounding piece of work in how it manages to animate scenes that should be exciting – like gunfights – in such a way as to drain all the excitement from it and replace it with a ponderous seriousness.
Kokoro Library (2001)
Studio:Studio Deen
Director:Koji Masunari
Moe librarian anime based on moe librarian manga. With horrible character designs.
Aquarian Age (2002)
Studio: Broccoli / Madhouse Studios
Director:Yoshimitsu Ohashi
Trading card game gets a late night animation. This draws on the gameworld of the card game, rather than make an anime about people playing the card game. Because it’s SERIOUS FANTASY and therefore doesn’t want to roll around in bed full of children’s pocket money.
Also stuck amongst these shows was something called SPORTS BEAT and another called face4/4. No idea what that last thing was. Can’t find a description of it on the internet beyond it being on the resumes of a former bandmate of DANCE MAN and some teenage idol of the time. So there you go.
US Success
All but one series has been released in the USA, can you guess which one?
If you guessed Kokoro Library, you would be right!
However, how many are still in print is a whole other question…
ADV Films – Those Who Hunt Elves, Aquarian Age, Excel Saga, Noir and Shadow Skill. These all appear to be limbo following ADV’s demise, but most have stock still available.
Image Entertainment – Hyper Police. This is in a similar position following Image’s bankruptcy
Bandai Entertainment – Eat-Man, Outlaw Star, Betterman and Argento Soma. Eat Man only got a VHS release to my knowledge. Betterman is out of print now. Collections of Outlaw Star and Argento Soma are still available.
Manga Entertainment – Virus Buster Serge. A collection is still available.