Laputa: Castle in the Sky Anime Review

Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Tenku no Shiro Rapyuta
Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney)
Movie - 126 minutes
$29.99 (2003) $29.99 (2010)
ISBN 786936791617
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Hayao Miyazaki
Studio - Studio Ghibli

Synopsis: A girl floats down from the sky wearing a pendant necklace of glowing blue stone and Pazu rescues her.  She is named Sheeta and is being pursued by the military.  Sheeta is linked to the ancient floating city called Laputa where wondrous technology and wealth are stored.  The two teenagers find unlikely allies in a group of sky pirates who are interested in Laputa to loot treasure, but have good hearts.


Pazu discovers Sheeta floating down from the sky

The military is led by the callous Colonel Muska who wants to harness Laputa as a tool to conquer the world.  He possesses artifacts from the fabled lost sky city in the form of an ancient non-functioning robot and a book.  Now Pazu and Sheeta along with Dola's pirates must race to uncover the secrets of Laputa before Muska and his flying warships catch up to them. 

Sheeta and Pazu flee from Muska's airship Goliath

Sheeta's pendant is the key to finding Laputa and her history is inexorably linked with the legendary city.  Can she and Pazu stop the evil Muska from destroying the world?

Pros: High-flying adventure, exciting chase scenes, wonderful hand-drawn animation, lush backgrounds, sense of wonder and amazement, incredibly simple yet appealing design work, excellent story with truly legendary feel, and the ancient robots rock!

Can Pazu and Sheeta reach Laputa before Muska?

Cons: Some issues with English dub including the translation differing from original Japanese script on some key lines and voice actor choices for Sheeta (Anna Paquinn) and Pazu (James Van Der Beek) sound older than originally portrayed (teens instead of pre-teens), the 2010 version's English subtitles are actually 'dub-titles' following the English dub rather than the original Japanese audio, background music is amped up, pirates are goofy (guys wear pink outfits)

Mike Tells It Straight: Laputa is one of my favorite films and another classic by Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli (the first official film by the studio in 1986).  It's filled with fantastic adventure and suspense while keeping a lighthearted air of simplicity.  A true classic and highly recommended for young and old alike.  I would easily rate this among the top five Ghibli films of all-time.  Animation and mechanical designs are top-notch organics (i.e. hand drawn).  The robots are awesome and my two-year-old loves this movie (behind Totoro of course).

Pazu and Sheeta meet a robot from Laputa

2010 version

The biggest question for me was how to choose the best version of the film on DVD.  Disney has released two versions in 2003 and 2010.  I watched the 2003 version and found it to be very good.  The soundtrack was epic (revised score by Joe Hisaishi didn't seem overpowering), subtitles were great, and the dub was all right.  The dub script makes some major changes to the story with choice of voice actors and line changes (lessening the environmental message which is a Ghibli signature). 

I would suggest getting the 2003 version if you're planning to watch in Japanese with English subtitles (avoid the dubtitles in the 2010 version).  Either version is fine if you're going to watch the English dub primarily.  Go out and get this movie as it's a wonderful film for all ages.

TO BUY and Recommendations:
   

Master of Martial Hearts Anime Review

Master of Martial Hearts
Funimation
Complete Collection - 1 disc
150 mins. - 5 episodes
$34.98 (2010)
$24.98 (2011)
ISBN 704400088469
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Yoshitaka Fujimoto
Studio - ARMS

Synopsis: Aya Iseshima is just a regular high school girl until she and a friend stumble into a brutal match between two girls in the Martial Heart tournament.  She ends up helping one of the combatants named Miko fight off the crazed attacks of her sadistic oppenent who is dressed as a flight attendant.  Aya is secretly a highly trained martial artist (she takes after her mother who is also a skilled fighter, but retired) and manages to stop the match.  Aya and her friend Natsume befriend Miko and learn about the tournament - a magical jewel exists called the Platonic Heart which grants a wish to the winner of the tournament.  Only women can participate and each girl has a special wish they fight dearly to see fulfilled. 

Miko mysteriously disappears and Aya joins the deadly tournament in order to find her missing friend.  The losers of each match are not only beaten physically, but are never heard from again.  Can Aya survive each successive match against progressively stronger opponents, will she ever see Miko again, and what horrible secret related to her family's past is buried at the heart of the tournament?

The lovely ladies of the Martial Heart tournament
Aya in the center framed by Miko and Natsume

Pros: Lots of fan-service and nudity - literally every battle has the beautiful combatants getting their clothing blown off by body hits, good opening and ending (episode 5) theme songs by Little Non, unexpected shock twist ending was a surprise

Cons: Ending theme song for episodes 1-4 was lame, character designs were generic and/or ridiculous (fighting outfit for teacher was particularly horrible), story was rushed (too short) with no character development

"You punched my shirt off - prepare to die!"

Mike Tells It Straight: You will believe a girl can be undressed by an uppercut!  This show is a generic knockoff of Ikki Tousen with a schoolgirl participating in a battle tournament, but it fails in several key areas.  The character designs and fighter gimmicks were weak (science teacher using molecule elements as fighting move combos was the worst).  Fight scenes were completely unrealistic and bland.  Aya gets her butt kicked across the floor and then manages to pull out a finishing move for the win?  Not bloody likely.


"What!?  Not again!"

The only redeeming qualities were a consistent level of fan-service, naked boobs during every fight, extendedly naked shower scene, and the sadistically evil shock ending.  It came out of nowhere and was highly amusing, especially the final scene. 
Overall a stunningly mediocre series with a few high points and many, many flaws.  It's a brief watch and the ending might be the redeeming factor, but I wouldn't recommend this show very much (especially at the MSRP).  Watch it if you're hard up for fan-service and brief nudity, but many other current shows deliver far better.

TO BUY and Recommendations:
   

High School of the Dead (HOTD) Season One Anime Review

Highschool of the Dead - Season One
Section 23/Sentai Filmworks
Complete Collection - 2 discs
300 mins. - 12 episodes
$59.98 (2011)
$69.98 (2011) Blu-Ray
ISBN 814131015617
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Tetsuro Araki
Studio - Madhouse

Synopsis: Takashi is a regular high school student who worries about classes and friends.  He grew up with classmate Rei and has a secret crush on her, but she likes his best friend Hisashi.  The three are attending classes at school when the "Outbreak" happens.  Strangely violent people appear at the school's gate and attack a group of teachers.  The teachers begin spitting blood and then attack some students - it continues and soon the entire school is overrun by flesh-eating zombies.  Not only is the school filled with zombies, but everywhere on Earth has been struck by a highly infectious disease and society is beginning to crumble.

"Have you seen my homeroom teacher? I need to chop off his head."

Takashi, Hisashi, and Rei must battle their way through the killer hordes of zombies in order to find their families.  Other students trying to survive join their group and these include Saeko the beautiful president of the kendo club, Saya the girl genius, Kohta the overweight gun otaku, and the school's incredibly busty nurse Shizuka.  Along the way the group gathers more members, but those without a strong nerve and will to survive fall to the zombie horror. 

Great animation and background visuals

A teacher manages to join the group along with several students following him, but the group soon discovers the zombies are not their only danger to be faced.  Humans taking advantage of the breakdown of society's laws are just as deadly as the shambling flesh-eaters.  They come across many people suffering from extreme psychological trauma and acting irrationally.  Will there be any rescue from this nightmare, can the students survive, and what hope do they have to find their families?

"Get back you undead fiends!"

Pros: Tons of fan-service with a nude bath scene thrown in for good measure, violent and gory - just like any good zombie flick should be, good script/dialogue with decent dub, great animation quality, nice music, opening/ending sequences are well done, underlying theme of friends sticking together was nice message

"I've been wondering all day if these are real!"

Cons: Over the top, not much character development, they establish zombies use hearing to find their prey and then everyone runs around shooting loud guns *sheesh*, annoyingly cute dog (that makes a ton of noise, people!), too few episodes (this set is the first season and just the start of the story, which is still in development) making this set pricey

More bath time fun with Shizuka and Saeko

Mike Tells It Straight: HOTD is the best of both worlds - equal parts ample fan-service and titillating zombie horror.  It delivers at every opportunity panty shots, jiggling boobs, up-skirt camera angles, bondage moments, and even firing guns causing boobs to jiggle.  If you like fan-service then you're in heaven here and there's even a fun bath scene where the girls grab each others' boobs.  Whee!

Zombies attack!

This show is definitely not The Walking Dead - it's not serious and lacks any true emotional drama past the first episode.  The characters run around among hordes of zombies without a care in the world.  The situations are over-the-top and unrealistic to the Nth degree.  If you're looking for a serious zombie show then look elsewhere, but this one is an action-packed romp.

Takashi rescues Rei by using her boobs to lessen the recoil
on a high-powered rifle

Let's be realistic here - there is no such thing as a serious animated zombie show.  TWD is as close as we're ever going to get with a live-action show and we don't need to beat up HOTD just to vent our frustration.  It's going to be okay.  HOTD doesn't elevate the zombie genre and only serves as an amusing escape from reality with a heavy dose of T&A.  The show is still better than 90% of the B-movie zombie flicks produced over the last 30 years.  Check out the series if you dig blood-splattering zombie horror flicks, big anime boobies shaking all over the screen, and can live without a compelling story.   

The Walking Dead...they're not!

TO BUY and Recommendations:
   

Battle Angel Anime Review

Battle Angel
ADV Films
Complete Collection - 1 disc
70 min. - 2 episodes
$29.98 (1999)
ISBN 702727000621
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Hiroshi Fukutomi
Studio - KSS, Madhouse, MOVIC

Synopsis: The floating city of Zalem is a utopia in the clouds.  Scrap Iron City has grown up around the garbage heap of Zalem and feeds from the refuse of the privileged.  Ido is a former citizen of Zalem and a gifted cybernetics doctor now residing among the filth in the city below.  He scrapes together a living by repairing broken cyborgs and one day salvages a cyborg girl from among the trash.

Zalem the floating city

He rebuilds the girl and names her Gally.  She becomes his helper and eventually like a daughter to him.  A boy named Hugo does odd jobs around the city and befriends Gally.  His secret dream is to save enough money to buy his way into Zalem one day. 

The city is a dangerous place with spine thieves and deadly criminals waiting around every corner.  Everyone lives in squalor with the sight of Zalem hanging over their heads.  Ido's disgraced former partner Chiren appears in the city and begs him to help her get back to Zalem.  She ends up working for the cyborg gladiator games and harbors a deep resentment for Ido. 


Chiren will do anything to get back up to Zalem

 Ido and Hugo are both hiding deadly secrets and Gally will sacrifice her innocence to protect the people she loves.  Hidden within her tiny frame is a startling power and she is destined to become a true "Hunter Warrior"! 

Pros: Cult classic, great characters, cool action scenes, decent music, poignant ending


Cons: Only two episodes - too short and too much story crammed into the limited time, disappointing to diehard fans of the manga, English dub is not good

Gally goes berserk



Mike Tells It Straight: My experience with Battle Angel (aka Gunnm or Battle Angel Alita) goes back to the mid-'90s when my art instructor Barron Storey at the San Francisco Academy of Art gave a VHS tape of Japanese anime as a class contest prize.  On the tape was Battle Angel, the Fist of the North Star movie (not the live action travesty), Genocyber, and Tetsuo: The Iron Man.  It blew my mind and cemented a love for anime started with the 1985 airing of Robotech.  Watching this anime again after all those years brought back a lot of fond memories from art school. 

The story is pure cyberpunk and incredibly simple yet compelling.  Gally's character is heartwarming and plucky.  All of the characters are very well done with clear motivations and defining moments.  The ending is still emotionally moving after all these years.  I consider the poignant moments in anime as the true elevation of the medium (particularly the depiction of death and duty in a mature manner - Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen, and Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket come to mind).  Battle Angel has that depiction and I've loved this story since first watching it over fifteen years ago. 


The eyes of a Hunter Warrior

 It's based on a long-running manga series with its own cult following.  Those diehard fans of the manga will be sorely disappointed by the anime.  I'm pretty sure Yukito Kishiro, the original creator, was not happy with the story translation and another anime attempt has not been made. For years an American film version directed by James Cameron has been rumored and is unofficially expected in 2016.  Cameron is supposed to be a huge fan of the manga and we'll hope he can do the story justice.   

The anime butchers the manga storyline, but is a wonderful gateway to steer people towards the manga and a truly classic cyberpunk series.  I hadn't read the manga and found Battle Angel to be really great.  Imagine how good the manga is going to be.  Check out both, but start with the anime first and you won't be too disappointed.

Classic image from Gunnm - this is the Battle Angel

TO BUY and Recommendations:
   

Spriggan Anime Review

Spriggan
ADV Films
Movie - 1 disc
90 min.
$29.98 (2002)
$29.98 (2005) Special Edition
ISBN 702727021527
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Hirotsugu Kawasaki
Studio - Studio 4⁰C

Synopsis: An ancient artifact is discovered and thought to be Noah's Ark.  Two clandestine groups battle over its possession and the world will never be the same!  On one side is ARCAM, an organization charged with recovering and guarding powerful ancient objects to ensure they never fall into the wrong hands.  On the other is the U.S. Machine Corps - a rogue division of powerful cyborgs funded by the Pentagon.

ARCAM employs hyper-skilled agents called Spriggan in every country across the globe.  One of their most capable Spriggan is Yu Ominae from Japan.  He rushes to investigate the Ark and stumbles upon a secret more terrifying than anyone could imagine.  Along the way he will face his greatest childhood tormentor recreated in a horrific cyborg body. 

The world faces annihilation as Colonel McDougal, a psychically augmented boy with nihilistic dreams, takes possession of the Ark and unleashes is terrible power on the populace.  Can one Spriggan hope to defeat a god? 

Will you be my Valentine?


Pros: Excellent action sequences, good character designs, great background music, nice CG elements, some interesting sci-fi concepts using old testament mythology

Cons: Some stiff 'action movie' one-liners, too few explanations for many of the characters (like how does Yu or any of the other Spriggan have powers?, what's up with McDougal's brain fluid thing?, are Fatman and Little Boy really gay and who is the bottom?, etc), zero character development

Mike Tells It Straight: Spriggan is an action movie first and foremost.  It gives us a non-stop adrenaline rush of violence and killing for the first half of the movie.  The action scenes are pretty amazing and some of the best in anime (particularly when it debuted in 2002).  The plot comes a distant third with little to no real setup for the histories or motivations of the characters.  When we meet Yu, he's in high school and suddenly he's a badass special agent.  No setup, but we're whisked along for the ride and it's a fun one. 

Yeah, it's funny when someone gets kicked in the nuts

The second half of the movie drags as we're forced to somewhat pay attention to the plot and there's a lot more talking.  You can tell Katsuhiro Otomo had a big hand in developing the story and character designs - McDougal could easily have walked straight out of Akira. 

If you're looking for a good action anime with some killer battles and a paper thin plot then you'll get your fix with Spriggan.  There's no romance, tons of things blow up, the heroes are invincible, and no one ever reloads.  It really hit my nostalgia bone with Otomo-influenced character designs and screenplay.  Turn off your brain and enjoy the ride.

TO BUY and Recommendations: