A Public Service Announcement

Delay All Monsters

Obviously with one thing and another I haven't been doing much writing here. This is something I'm hoping to fix going forward. And whilst I have one or two plans for things to write about in the future, there is one piece of outstanding business from the recent past that needs to be dealt with first: The new Godzilla movie.

Yes, I've seen it. And whilst I wouldn't say I hated it, or even that it was BAD exactly. But it has problems, and that's the sort of thing I find interesting to talk about. So we're going to do that for a little while. Needless to say, there will be spoilers.

Pacific Rim Part 3: Weight And See

Are we still going on about Pacific Rim? STILL?

Fuck yeah we are.

In fact, we may even need a bigger blog.

Honestly, I haven't actually been this taken with a film in... I don't even KNOW how long. I've probably been to the cinema about as many times in the past 2 or 3 years as I've seen Pacific Rim.

And I've only been to see it TWICE as I'm writing this.

Yes, I know. Need to get out more. Whatever.

The thing is, as I believe I may have mentioned, the film is actually rather good. And thus it is that even after going for two whole posts talking about it I still find myself thinking of stuff I haven't mentioned yet. So let's get on with it shall we?

Pacific Rim Part 2: And Now For Something

Last time I talked a little about the parallels between Pacific Rim and Star Wars (at least the original movie). This time I want to get into some of the other various influences and inspirations in the film. Which is going to be a little tricky, because is this one film that is neither short on inspirations or shy about showing them off in the slightest.

So, given that my topic for the day is Pacific Rim and EVERYTHING, where should we start?

Perhaps in the place you'd least expect?

Pacific Rim Part 1: In The Footsteps Of Giants

Hey, you what time it is?

It's time to talk about Pacific Rim. Spoilers may or may not follow, but let's be honest here: If you haven't gone to see it by now you're obviously a terrible human being, so why should we care what you think?

And Now I Shout At My Watch

Mari chan no sukaato wa chiisana desu. Mari chan no pantsu wa shiroi desu.

Sorry, what was I saying?

Red Baron. No, not Richthofen, this is the Japanese one. Whilst both are capable of flight and feats of daring do, this one happens to be a giant robot. There are a few reasons to pick up this particular series. Firstly of course there's the simple fact that you either love tokusatsu or you hate freedom, but I must confess that there were 2 major contributions to my initial decision to purchase this: That I could and that it was cheap.

It's a sad fact that the tokusatsu market is rather underrepresented outside of Japan. despite the huge wealth of shows there simply doesn't seem to be anyone releasing them with the all important english subtitles. The few shows that have been released seem to go out of print quite quickly and rapidly become very expensive and hard to find. So it's good that someone seems to have picked up Iron King and Red Baron again and re released them. Unfortunately this release does seem to be lacking some of the bells and whistles, lacking the booklet of the original release. Going by what was included with original Iron King boxset this is rather disappointing. It would be nice to get some background, production detail or stories from the cast. But we do at least get the show itself. So, whats it like?

Well, it's a 70's tokusatsu production for young boys about giant robots. If you have a problem with this sort of thing then you're not my friend, go away. If you enjoy that sort of thing you may well find something to enjoy here. The plot, such as it is, is rather designed to serve the ultimate purpose of having large metal men punch each other on a weekly basis. To start with Professor Deviler of the evil Iron Alliance steals all the worlds giant robots. All except one. The good one. That would be the one in the title. It's incredible to see just how awesome a world would be if every country on earth was compelled to built a giant robot for some reason. That's 70's futurism for you. Of course it's perfectly reasonable for the Spanish to build a giant bullfighter. What else would they do?

Anyway, the series continues in this way for quite a while, and I confess it did seem to lag a bit towards the middle. Sure, the effects were well done, the designs were imaginative. There was an interesting variety to the plot and tone ranging from noir as fuck to comedic to hallucinatory trippyness. But after a while it did seem to tire a little. And then things suddenly turned epic. Halfway through they suddenly kill off half the cast, including the bad guy! That really made me sit up and take notice again. The stakes were raised, the show was refreshed and we suddenly found our way hurtling towards the epic conclusion in space! It's interesting to see that the production staff were aware of how the show was going, and were not afraid to shake things up a little, or even a lot. It's at times like this though that the lack of extras really bites, as I'm really intrigued to know what was going on in the office around that time.

But aside from all the usual devices that keep you watching, there was one other point of great excitement for me over the course of the series, one that I feel I must address. They say a picture is worth a thousand words...

The word is pantsu.

Now don't get me wrong, there is a lot more to the character than her compellingly short garment. As strong female characters go in kids shows from the 70's she's pretty good. She kicks ass and doesn't manage to captured or mind controlled more than anyone else. When she gets ignored for being a girl it usually turns out she's right. Not a sappy dumb stay at home screamer by means.

But goddamn, that skirt is not long. Seriously, if you ever wonder if you're turning gay watch a few episodes of Red Baron. It's a good test.

Anyway, in some sort of summation then: We have a good solid show, with some fair degree of imagination. They never skimp on the excitement or explosives, but still manage to cram a bit of human drama in with the giant robot action. I can't honestly say it manages to scale the dizzy heights of Ultraman, but it's not afraid to try. Should anyone ever make a show that combine the greatness of Ultraman with the shortness of Mari's skirt I will die a happy man, possibly immediately as I suffer an anime scale nosebleed.

I'm to tired to think of a witty title for this. Deal with it.

I've just finished watching Iron King. This is the part where I'm supposed to tell you about the whole experience. My thoughts and impressions. This is, it has to be said, not always as easy as one might think. And this is one of those times. I suppose the best place to start will be with the fundemental dichotomy at the heart of the show, which is a fairly straightforward question.

Simply, how can a show be so utterly generic yet startlingly original AT THE SAME TIME?

So, basics. We have a 70's Tokusatsu show, transforming hero, giant monsters, sinister organisations with hordes of disposable minions, the full works. The titular giant hero is liveried in a familiar red and silver style.

Which when you compare it do the Ultraman who debuted just prior to this series airing....

 

Well, you can see what I mean. However this is where things get weird. Because whilst we have what amounts to tokustasu by numbers, right down to the thinly veiled Ultraman clone, we also find a show with many unique merits of it's own. For a start there's the question of the lead hero. Shizuka Gentaro is everything a leading man should be, handsome, deadly, dressed as a cowboy. However he's not Iron King. It's the comedy relief sidekick Kirishima Goro who actually does the transforming bit. This is actually really effective. For all I love Ultraman it does have to be said that Hayata doesn't really get much to do except transform at the appropriate juncture. But here we have a hero who's running around doing hero stuff and fighting giant monsters on his own. This leads into the second point: for most of the series Iron King DOESN'T defeat the monsters. It's only through the combined efforts of both Gentaro and Iron King together that victory is achieved. This removes the whole deus ex machina part of the transforming hero genre in one fell swoop. Indeed, for the first part of the series Iron King himself is actually a bit useless, having no beams or special moves. There's a lot of him desperately grappling with this weeks threat whilst Gentaro gets his shit together enough to put a stop to things.

Now, it's going to be hard to continue to address the series at all without mentioning the rather startling tonal break two thirds of the way in. Simply, this is when the excutives in charge decided things needed to move in a more overtly Ultraman direction. So instead of political insurgents the bad guys became aliens, Iron King started to exhibit strange new powers and Gentaro started to share in the comedy. Prior to this things are actually much darker. Gentaro in particular is a very serious figure, not above exploiting people to fulfill his mission. He has that whole big picture thing going on that makes some people regard him as quite callous. Then ratings drop and suddenly him and Goro start slacking off and mercilessly tormenting their new female lead. It's quite bizarre.

I want to mention the fight scenes as well. It's not all giant robot wrestling, there's always a horde of lackeys for Gentaro to slice through as well. So far so standard. But theres a real sense of effort here as well, that their always trying to make each episodes fights DIFFERENT somehow. Trying new things, new locations and the like. It's really good, and does keep things interesting.

The bad guys themselves take the form of 3 distinct factions, each neutralised over the course of about 10 episodes or so. First up is the Shiranui Clan and their Giant Robots, then the Phantom Militia with their Giant Robot Monsters, before finally the Titanians show up, who ARE Giant Monsters. Having these story arcs works quite well, as things don't get too stretched out, and there is some sense of moving forwards. Even the minions get some story to themselves, with a few episodes featuring family members trying to find them or whatever. Whilst this never ends particularly well for any involved it's fantastic to actually see this plot thread used.

So what we have is a series that is firmly entrenched in the tropes of it's genre, but is exploring those tropes in it's own way and producing something quite unique within those boundaries. It has it's limitations and weakness', but then so do all series. If there's a show that really deserves a dark and gritty reboot it's got to be Iron King. Get the guys who worked on GARO and Ultraseven X and put together a mini series based on this. You could ramp up all the elements that they slowly stripped out of the series towards the end and make something quite adult and sophisticated. 

An oddity no doubt, but certainly an entertaining one. The simple fact that there exists an english subtitlted release of this show is reason enough to buy it. Treats like this are few and far between.

Why Yes, It Does Have Boobs In It. Why Do You Ask?

The time has come my friends to once more pour forth my ill informed opinions upon the pages of the internet. In this weeks thrilling installment I shall be taking as my subject The Ancient Dogu Girl (Kodai Shōjo Doguchan).

Why? Because it's fucking ace, thats why. And I'm not talking about some sort of Showa Ultraman/Dogu-Chan slash fiction here.

Anyway, by now you should already no at least something of the show. Like the fact that it exists for example. If you don't then what on earth have you been doing with your life? Seriously, at least go look up the trailer on youtube or something. We'll wait for you.

Right, is he gone? Good. That's got rid of him.

So yeah, it looks like a funny sort of show. Light hearted comedy tokusatsu with a girl who tends to not wear much and jump about in a jiggly fashion. And to an extent, yes it is. But It's also a lot more than that. This is a high quality production all around, though not necessarily a high budget one. It's very funny, yes, at least at first. But it also has some very dark and serious episodes. Indeed, the ending to the series is (without giving too much away) rather downbeat. And these serious touches are quite powerful simply because they're simply not what I was expecting. The only problem here was that it was as these more serious elements appeared that the subtitles on my copy began to take a turn for the worse, a subject that I have already discussed previously. Bizzarely enough there are several episodes with more than a shade of GARO influence. Which may sound kind of bizarre, and may even just be me. But when you think about Dogu-Chan IS kind of a comedy fanservice version of Garo, so who knows.

Anyway, we have a really solid series here. It's well written, imaginative and original. And, I can't state this clearly enough, really well acted. For a show that's very much concerned with the physical charms of it's leading lady you may not expect acting to be that high up on thelist of requirements. Indeed I've seen other shows (not mentioning that first Onechanbara film at all here) where the actress has clearly been hired for looks over any other concerns. But Dogu-Chan has real character and personality. She even does good in the fight scenes, another plus. The other leads are also well played, and I wouldn't say there's a duff note in the whole production. What we have is people trying their hardest to make the best show they can within the constraints of the budget.

Now, I'm obviously not the only one to notice how good this series is, since they're making a film version using some existing episodes and some new footage, which is great as more Dogu-Chan can only be a good thing, and it gets the word out beyond those few who got to see it on it's original run. As ever, the real question is if the show will ever get a proper release outside of Japan. I think it has a fair chance. I mean, they released Akiballion even if they haven't released Garo or the thousand other actually good drama and Tokusatsu shows. So I guess the sexy element and Machine Girl connection should help a bit.

In the fianl analysis, this is a show I'd recomend without much hesitation to anyone. It has pretty much all the hallmarks of a good series. Including huge wobbly knockers.

All Of A Sudden Life Is Worth Living Again

 

Check this out! Ultra Galaxy Legend DVD is coming out in April and it has ENGLISH SUBTITLES!!!!

I dunno about you, but I just preordered the limited edition memorial box version.

I've been looking forward to this film since I first heard about it, and everything I've seen makes it look like the BEST FILM EVER MADE EVER. Now to find out I'll be able to get it on DVD at release, without all the waiting around for suspicious copies to finally appear on ebay is excellent news of the highest order.

You hear me Tsubaraya Productions? You can have ALL my money, just put English Subtitles on your DVD's.

Maid Contain Traces Of Nuts.

If there's one thing promised by anything with the title Akiballion: Battlemaids of Akihabara it's the best thing ever. I mean, seriously. not just Battlemaids, but BATTLEMAIDS OF AKIHABARA. This is a series that has no business sucking.

So, I guess the question you're asking is, simply, does it?

The answer is, sadly, not exactly. But nor is it the masterpiece of fetishistic fanboy pleasing one might hope for. What we have is a low to no budget production, as evidenced by the (apparently) single camera setup and noticebly lacking in overdub sound. Not that this is a bad thing in any way. Indeed, I personally prefer something with a low budget, as it's only really then that you see genuine effort and creativity. But it's worth noting that this is not exactly an A list production. Really I think the major problem here is simply in the pacing and editing. Frankly each episode could probably lose 5 to 10 minutes and would benifit from tightening up a little. There is a tendenacy to hold shots just a little longer than really necessary. Also the monster torturing the heroine scenes could REALLY stand to be cut down some. Seriously, they do go beyond the fetishistic and into just plain wierd and creepy territory. Not that we're talking graphic here or anything, but 10 minutes of the monster treading on one of the girls whilst they pretend to writhe in agony to varying degrees of believability does tend to stretch things a little to far.

Performance wise it's not terrible, but nor is it necessarily anything special. Kudos does have to go out for the fight scene choreography though. In that there actually is some. I've seen some stuff where the heroines have been hired more for their looks than their fighting ability, and it does show. Here the girls manage to not look entirely uncomfortable in action, and it's also worth noting that although masked when they transform it's always the actress doing the action. When you take into account just how short the uniforms skirts are this is probably for the best, as a stuntman would be the stuff of nightmares.

This leads us fairly naturally onto the visual production, so let's talk about that. The Akiballion uniforms look good. The skirts are of course basically only there to allow for upskirt shots when the heroines move about, and they achieve this effect quite wonderfully. If you weren't expecting something of this nature then what the hell were you doing watching Battlemaids of Akihabara? I mean, what did you think was going to happen? Fanservicey, but ridiculously or excessively. Well, not too much anyway.
The monsters are not bad, but again the budget does kick in a little. Perhaps they're just not outlandish enough for my own personal tastes, though the third one is pretty original now that I think of it.

Plot wise, well... Yes there is one, no it's not quite enough to fill out the running time. There are as previously mentioned areas that needed trimming down, but also there are areas that could have been more fully explored. Thematically it's quite interesting, and I love the way all the monsters seem to start out as creepy otaku before recieving thier power up courtesy of some Akihabara themed goods. Laptop, camera, microscope? I suppose we should be grateful they stopped before getting to the Doujins, or we'd have a very different style of production on our hands. we do also get a treated to a lot of shots of in and around Aki itself (notably during the overlong front titles) which is nice, though it does mean that the first episode takes quite a while to get going. It is kind of worth it for the Moe singing maid, who bizarrely is then never featured again. This is, I have to say, quite dissapointing. Especially when you consider that 2 of 3 members of Akiballion aren't even maids themselves. One maid, one nurse and one idol. So going for a broad a range of fetishes as possible really.

All in all I'd have to say that the idea's are sound, the concept is interesting and there's obviously some hard work gone in, but the production does seem to have come against the dreaded time and budget constraints. A good try, but quite 100% successful. I'd certainly be intrigued to see what they could do with a decent amount of money and time, along with a good editor.