Re: Entertainment Joys

[Enail]

Huh. I saw one episode of it that may have been Season 3, and it seemed pretty good, but I was skeptical after everything I've heard. Maybe there's hope!

[KMR]

I enjoyed Picard season 3, it was definitely a big step up from what I've seen/heard of the previous seasons.

However, I thought the first part of the season had a lot of promise but wasn't as big a fan of where it went in the latter half and how it wrapped up. Like, it was still fun in a turn-your-brain-off sort of way, but I would have liked more from it. So I ended up feeling a bit more mixed on the whole thing compared to many others, who seem to have been very happy with this season.

That said, it might nonetheless be in the running for my favorite out of what I've seen from new Trek so far. I've liked seasons 3 & 4 of Discovery, they've definitely taken that show in a much better direction, but I can't say it particularly excites me. Everyone else seems to love Strange New Worlds, and I can understand why, but I had very mixed feelings about it (but it did end on a good note for me, so it left me feeling somewhat hopeful in the long run). Lower Decks just feels like it belongs in its own separate category; I don't dislike it and it's fun to watch, but it's still like, "I never asked for this to exist, but okay sure, I can go with it."

But like... I wish there could be a new Trek show that I can just unequivocally feel positive and excited about, but all I have so far is a mixed bag, a sense of relief that we're in a better place than where we started, and holding on to the vague hope that there might still be something better to come.

[Werel]

However, I thought the first part of the season had a lot of promise but wasn't as big a fan of where it went in the latter half and how it wrapped up. Like, it was still fun in a turn-your-brain-off sort of way, but I would have liked more from it. So I ended up feeling a bit more mixed on the whole thing compared to many others, who seem to have been very happy with this season.

I agree for the most part - I'd have enjoyed VERY different things with how the big bad turned out, and the nuance of the various factions could have used a heavy dose of DS9 writers' room, and I'd have liked

Spoiler:

But given that they were kind of constrained to making it a fanservice show about Jean-Luc Picard, and basically HAD to weave in a bunch of the most predictable & popular elements of TNG, I think they did pretty well. Way better than any new Trek I've seen, anyway (I'm trying so hard to care about Strange New Worlds, but like you, I can't quite get there!).

[KMR]

Yeah, and given that television is now all about making very condensed 10-episode seasons that are designed to be "bingeable", it just further adds to those kinds of constraints.

I feel like we've been spoiled by just how good DS9's writing was. It set the bar so high!

[Datelessman]

My mother is a Trekkie and while I did watch my fair share of the original series, Next Generation, DS9 and Voyager over the years just by proximity, I can't say I was ever a Trekkie myself. Part of this was rebellion and the other is just not being wild for it despite a ton of exposure. I've probably seen more of the original series and Voyager than the others, but a fair mix of them. My mother still watches all of them in syndication on the H&I (Heroes & Icons) channel and has actually come around on Enterprise; I remember her not being wild about it originally.

At any rate, it's been over a month so I figure I'll share my thoughts on my latest Entertainment Joy, or "DVD binge," of another series from my childhood. For reasons I really can't explain it was a show I certainly adored as a kid, but I didn't get around to purchasing on DVD for ages, despite it all being fairly priced. It was not only one of the best animated series to be inspired by a film, but one which ran 4 seasons across two networks, even concurrently. During an era of children's TV dominated by the prime of the Ninja Turtles, it managed to eke out its own run. It's a show I haven't seen an episode of in roughly 31 years, but which has always stuck with me. I'm talking about the cartoon starring none other than "the ghost with the most," BEETLEJUICE.

It's an animated series which spun off of the 1988 Tim Burton film of the same name. After Burton scored big on 1985's "PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE," he was considered a bankable director by Warner Brothers and was almost immediately attached to their big superhero relaunch film, BATMAN. But in the years between, Burton started using his newfound connections and reputation to get other passion projects made, and BEETLEJUICE was one of them. WB wasn't confident in it and only gave it a budget of $15 million, but when it grossed almost $75 million in theaters, it became a surprise hit. Since making animated TV cartoon spinoffs for kids from films sold to adults was already a thing (i.e. see cartoons like "RAMBO: THE FORCE OF FREEDOM," "ROBOCOP: THE ANIMATED SERIES," and even cartoons centered around Mister T and Chuck Norris), WB decided to produce a BEETLEJUICE cartoon. Unlike many of those earlier efforts, some of the folks behind the film were involved in the show. Burton developed the series for TV and was one of the executive producers (even if at the time he would have been busy with 2 Batman films and "A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS") and Danny Elfman did the theme song.

The show debuted on ABC's Saturday morning line up in 1989, produced by Nelvana Ltd. (a Canadian company) along with the Geffen Film Company, and Tim Burton Inc. It was a huge hit for the network, though ABC ordered surprisingly few episodes of it. It ran on ABC for 3 seasons and only racked up 29 episodes (most of which were in the debut season). That all changed when Fox, eager to jump into the children's animation business in 1991, ordered a fourth season of a whopping 65 episodes for weekday afternoons. FoxKids wanted to make sure they had enough episodes for standard broadcast syndication right off. However, ABC's third season episodes were also debuting in 1991; in fact, the third season premiere on ABC and the fourth season premiere on FoxKids were only two days apart. That means seasons 3 and 4 were produced at the same time for two rival networks and aired on both of their stations at roughly the same period of time. This means at its peak in 1991, BEETLEJUICE was airing 6 days a week. That is insane for a series which didn't have turtle shells somewhere. Airing a whopping 94 episodes across two networks wasn't too confusing, as the show is an episodic comedy with no multi-parters and loose continuity.

Having to "share" a series with a rival network seemed to work out for FoxKids; in fact, it even won an Emmy award that year. BEETLEJUICE was a big hit for them too and the following year, they'd get BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (also inspired by a Burton film) and X-MEN. And to think, just a year earlier, FoxKids' big shows were "ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES" and "BOBBY'S WORLD."

I mean, you can tell how much FoxKids cared just by the intros. Here's the intro for the first 3 seasons on ABC:


And here is the intro for the 4th season that debuted on FoxKids:


Seriously, that fourth season intro may have blown out their entire animation budget, but damn is it impressive.

Anyway, like most cartoon shows based on a raunchier movie, certain concessions and changes had to be made in order to make it acceptable for kids. On the other hand, it had to be close enough to the movie that it was recognizable as part of the same franchise. This is always a tough needle to thread, as usually the TV series has to imply a loose "folk memory" with the parent film, while changing many details. For example, in the 1987 "ROBOCOP" cartoon, Alex Murphy's origin is roughly the same, only he's "mortally wounded" by Clarence Boddicker and his gang and not killed. In fact, the series finale involves Murphy going after Boddicker and resisting the urge to kill him, which implies the last act of the film never happened. I imagine part of this was helped, in the 1980s at least, by the fact that not EVERY family had a VCR and could watch movies outside of theaters at a whim (and especially not kids).

The show relies on a lot of gross out humor, as well as tons of visual gags, puns, and "dad jokes" as they're called now. The zeal for this is extremely literal (i.e. if Beetlejuice mentions "hedge-hogs," expect them to look like hogs with hedges as fur in the Neitherworld). There are spoofs of certain films, TV shows, and actors across the four seasons and can range from common stuff like "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE" or Edgar G. Robinson (two villains) to "A CLOCKWORK ORANGE." Most of this is simple and blunt enough for kids to follow, but there are errant lines here and there which were more mature or "adult." Some have theorized that THE GRIMM ADVENTURES OF BILLY & MANDY and even THE FAIRY ODDPARENTS owe some thanks to BEETLEJUICE for laying down the groundwork for that style of wacky kids' cartoon.

During the first 29 episodes on ABC, the lengths of each story would vary. Some episodes were "full length" at 22 minutes but at least a third were divided into two "mini episodes" of 11 minutes each, which is a common format for kids shows which continues to this day (especially on Cartoon Network and Nick). Some of the 11 minute episodes have plots or gimmicks which feel rushed, while some longer episodes could have been cut down. However, once the Fox season starts, all of "their" 65 episodes are full length; no more half-episodes. The ABC seasons also balanced out time between the Neitherworld and human world almost equally; a typical episode (or mini episode) was just as likely to take place in one realm or the next. This shifts drastically in favor of the Neitherhood once the Fox season starts, to the point that the human realm is usually only used as an introductory device to show what Lydia is doing before Beetlejuice shows up (or the plot draws her to the Neitherworld). There is also one more drastic shift in tone which comes in season four, which I'll touch on later.

As for the BEETLEJUICE cartoon, the biggest changes involve the title character being less of an antagonist and in redefining his relationship with Lydia Deetz, the star heroine. In the movie, Beetlejuice is sleazy, oversexed, and tries to marry a teenage Lydia in the finale (played by an 18 year old Winona Ryder). In the animated series, Lydia is in "middle school," which means she's about 10-13 years old, and their relationship is as "best friends." Despite that, Beetlejuice is obligated to use his catch phrases from the film at all times, as well as his mannerisms and speech patterns. This leads to some, uh, "unique" angles to their friendship.

For one thing, the pair celebrate anniversaries of their first meeting by exchanging presents; not something "friends" usually do. For another, Beetlejuice calls Lydia "babe" or "babez" virtually all the time. Part of this was that word was commonly used by exaggerations of West coast lounge lizards, agents, or brokers. ALF, for instance, sometimes called people "babe" in his sitcom. Still, when taken together, it gets obvious to see why plenty of "tributes" to the two are on YouTube and fanart on DA can sometimes "go there." For what it is worth, in one episode near the end of the series, Beetlejuice jokes, "No one ever told me about the birds and the beetles!" and Lydia deadpans, "I'll explain it to you later." It also helps that Beetlejuice hardly ever expresses any romantic interest in anyone. Rather than refer to the "Afterlife," like the film does, Beetlejuice's world is called "the Neitherworld." Finally, aside for BJ, Lydia, and her parents (and the Sandworms), no other characters from the film appear. A minor character, I.M. Smallhead, is inspired by Harry the Hunter, but not the same.

I may as well go over some random bits about the characters. The voice cast are Canadian and virtually all of them would go one to have roles in X-MEN a year after this show wrapped.

Spoiler:

To loop this meandering thing back to the start, one of the quirks of having a geeky mother who had me somewhat young (mom was 25 when she had me so was in her 30s during the 90s) was that she usually watched at least a few episodes of any show I was into. It wasn't just to keep an eye on what I was doing; she seemed to genuinely like many of them (and definitely missed when I outgrew toys and action figures). This often got embarrassing (I.E. my mother being very fond of He-Man), at least as a kid. But this included "BEETLEJUICE" and one episode she definitely saw with me was "Poultrygeist," a spoof of "POULTERGEIST." To this day it remains an in-joke anytime something randomly falls in the apartment. "It must have been the Poultrygeist!"

To sum up, finally, this was a binge I enjoyed way more than I thought. I was surprised by how many bits, episodes, jokes, and puns I had retained even from 30+ years prior. Considering my own fondness for terrible puns (especially as I get older) a part of me wonders just how impressionable I was for Beetlejuice. It was one of few shows which really bonded to me at a time when Ninja Turtles seemed to rule my life. The show remained popular in syndication (both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network used to air it in loop during the rest of the 90s), and in the years since Beetlejuice has gotten a successful musical (that some claim was gypped out of a Tony) and even a guest appearance in "TEEN TITANS GO!" There's a new movie on the way so maybe this will hit steaming too. But there's nothing quite like that original show.

[Datelessman]

I caught two movies recently, as in actual theaters. The first was THE FLASH, which stunk. The second was INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY, which wasn't perfect but was way better than CRYSTAL SKULL and a satisfying way to end the series, finally.

In terms of my random DVD binges, I caught a series that I only knew about from memes, references in other material, and some brief online videos. It was a series that came about long before a Marvel Cinematic Universe was a twinkle in anyone's eye, but emerged during a time when the path to get there was being paved. And it proved that at least some franchises can be vaguely translatable across the sea. I am talking about the 1978-1979 TOEI SPIDER-MAN TV series, also known as "Japanese Spider-Man" or Supaidāman. It aired on TV Tokyo and was the first of several joint productions between Marvel Comics (then spearheaded by Stan Lee) and Toei Company, known for a slew of anime productions as well as the then-latest live action sensation, SUPER SENTAI (which began in 1975 with Himitsu Sentai Gorenger and would be rebranded and resold in the U.S. as MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS in 1993, sixteen incarnations later).

By the mid to late 1970s, Stan Lee and Marvel determined that the future of the characters and franchises they'd created involved more than sporadic, cheaply produced TV cartoons for kids (or random t-shirts or toys). It would be in live action TV and film productions, much as DC had achieved for Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. On the American side, Marvel was working with CBS to produce "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN" (which ran for 2 brief seasons starring Nicholas Hammond) and "THE INCREDIBLE HULK" (which ran for 5 seasons starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno and was well regarded). Publisher Gene Pulc acted as a bit of a go-between with Toei and Marvel to eventually iron out a deal in which Toei would pay a license fee to Marvel to adopt their characters, but Toei could interpret them essentially any way they saw fit.

The first and most successful of these deals was SPIDER-MAN for TV Tokyo. Originally, Toei was going to make the web-slinger the sidekick of Yamato Takeru, a legendary Japanese prince who would have come to the modern day via a time warp. While Stan Lee himself had no official involvement in the show, in a 2009 interview regarding the series, he stated that he'd at least advised the head people of Toei of what the character was about and his opinions on what made a hero. Perhaps for this reason, the original idea with Takeru was abandoned and Spider-Man was made the star, with more of a science fiction plot. Or maybe it was just because aliens and sci-fi hi-tech stuff were big in the late 1970s.

By 1977, the second SUPER SENTAI show, J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai, had ended after a mere 35 episodes (making it the shortest of the franchise's series to this day). Toei decided to give the franchise a rest and produce SPIDER-MAN instead. They were hestiant as to whether kids would respond to the character, so they decided to hedge their bets by including what was then a novel concept: a giant, combination robot. Go Nagai's MAZINGER Z was the first major Japanese franchise to feature that stuff in the early 1970s, and it was immediately popular. So the idea was to have the show star a Toei-style Spider-Man, who could summon a giant robot and fight monsters. This combination -- a spandex clad superhero summoning a giant combination robot to fight monsters with -- was very popular and Toei began incorporating that element into every SUPER SENTAI show starting with the third, produced after SPIDER-MAN ended and alongside Marvel, Battle Fever J.

TOEI SPIDER-MAN ran for 41 episodes from 1978-1979, with a theatrical episode released for the Summer 1978 Toei Cartoon Festival which acts as an "episode 10.5," so 42 episodes in essence. It was a hit, but because the licensing deal with Marvel ended around 1980, Toei wasn't able to release the series on home video or even feature most promotional images from it until 2009, when a new deal with Marvel (either before, during, or after Disney purchased them) allowed them to finally release the series in Japan on DVD. Marvel uploaded and released all of the episodes for free on their website (in the "kids' section" along with stuff like X-MEN EVOLUTION), but took it down later that year. The Japanese version of Spider-Man has an extended cameo in the 2015 comic book version of SPIDER-VERSE, which is way worse than Sony's films.

As someone always fascinated by what small bits of this show I saw, as well as a cult fan of the CBS show, I'd always wanted to see it. Ironically, the formulaic bits with the giant robots and monsters are the worst parts of the show, and one gets the sense that even the producers and directors tired of it and saw it as an obligation. Yet that element has endured in SUPER SENTAI/POWER RANGERS ever since 1979.

Spoiler:

Across 41 episodes, I also learned quite a lot about 1970s Japanese culture. I wonder how much is true. To wit:
- Almost all elementary school aged boys wear disturbingly short shorts.
- Disco was still alive in Japan in 1979.
- Schoolboys in the late 1970s are some of the most brutal and vicious youngsters who ever lived. A few episodes show them either bullying someone or fighting a classmate they think is lying or stealing. They don't just hit or push, they dogpile the victim like he owed them money for 5 generations, often leaving bruises, black eyes and cuts. The Crips aren't even that bad.
- It was perfectly acceptable for adults, even non family members, to strike misbehaving kids, even in the face.
- Japanese German Shepherds have super powers. One episode had one unravel the plot of the episode to try to save his owner, survive being shot with automative fire and fall off a dam, just by being determined enough to respond to a dog whistle. He also totally saves Spider-Man from a bomb. Lassie, eat your heart out.
- Any schoolboy that wants to be depicted as studious yet lonely wears a suit and red bow tie like Detective Conan.
- Forming unofficial clubs of boy detectives was so popular that THREE SEPARATE DETECTIVE CLUBS form and are the basis of 3 different episodes. These clubs are complete with homemade badges and cosplay (either of trenchcoat detectives, samurai, or caped heroes). One of them is called "the Man Man Detective Club" even though one member is a girl. Having one group of death seeking kids form a detective club and get involved in monster plots is insane enough; three separate ones is madness. Imagine if Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Encyclopedia Brown all set up in the same city...and that was Central City, which already has the Flash.
- All cat burglars are just called "Phantom Thief" and assigned a number. Episode 3 features "Phantom Thief 001" but another one pops up later down the road.
- Drug dealers in Japan wear ski masks even in broad daylight and literally carry sacks full of drugs over their shoulders. And have street names like "Killer Nelson."
- All nacrotics detectives have expert fighting skills comparable to alien monsters or robots in either gunplay, martial arts, or kendo. One reoccurring narc dresses like a cowboy and not only is an expert marksman, but his guitar also has a machine gun attachment. But episode 39 also introduces several of his peers, and they're also martial artists or sword experts. In comparison, beat Japanese cops or security guards can barely use pistols or clubs. Again, this is only narcotics detectives; no telling if being a detective in another field bestows extra combat powers.

Maybe Toei isn't a completely accurate social barometer.

The set I got also included a brief interview from Stan Lee from 2009. He appeared to enjoy this series more than the American attempt, which he attributed to the fast action and Spider-Man's movements. I also wonder if the fact that they actually bothered with the "great responsibility" angle also helped. Stan missed the part where Spider-Man docks with Marveller with Spider-Machine GP7 instead of another random rocket, but the Toei representative explains it to him partially off camera very patiently. A dude in a Spider-Man costume also was there for photo ops, and Stan replied, "That's great. Now go out and scare people." Ah, Stan Lee...the world still misses you.

TOEI SPIDER-MAN is kind of a weird show with the uneven tone and some of the flaws, but I found myself really liking this strange, wacky show. To think we have Spider-Man to blame for the MegaZord, essentially. It was fun to see the show beyond the memes and I actually did manage to get into to, and want to follow Takuya's costumed quest for revenge. There's only one way to end this...

MAN WHO NEVER STOPS TYPING, DATELESS-MAN!

[Datelessman]

In terms of films, I saw TMNT: MUTANT MAYHEM a week ago. It was a good, fun film; the only Ninja Turtles film I wanted to see since 2007 and arguably the best one since 1991 (if not 1990). Lots of humor, tons of imagination, great designs, almost too many characters, and it's under 100 minutes. At a time when  even "THE MEG 2" is almost 2 hours and most comic book and summer blockbusters are north of 2 hours (INDIANA JONES 5 was 2.5 hours).

In terms of DVD binges, I got to 1979's FLASH GORDON from Filmation (sometimes called "The Adventures of Flash Gordon"). While I'm not keen on the franchise (Ming is the granddaddy of "yellow peril" villains and Flash Gordon himself is often a smug, arrogant jock), I wanted to see it for two reasons. One, because it was part of Filmation's history pre-He-Man, and two, because it was one of the first heavily serialized animated series in the U.S. I imagine the fact that the original Flash Gordon comic strips and film serials were, well, serialized had something to do with it. Trust me, in 1979, having a first season of 13 episodes all take place back to back and flow from each other was a novelty. Unfortunately, the network people didn't care for that or the "serious" tone, so by season two in 1981-1982 it was softened up, made more standalone, featured two stories per episode and introduced an annoying mascot character in Gremlin, who only speaks in baby-talk (with "Shabba Dee!" as a catchphrase). Also worth noting that Alan Oppenheimer's villain voice for Ming the Merciless is exactly the same as the one he'd use for Skeletor, right down to the laugh. Diane Pershing (who many know best as Poison Ivy from BATMAN: TAS) voices Dale Arden, but I think she has more fun voicing many of the female villains. Flash Gordon is something of a harem series; not only does he have a pre-insert girlfriend, all the hot babes on planet Mongo want to ride his rocket. If anything, the goofier second season gave the actors more of a chance to have fun, and Pershing's Dale definitely has more attitude. Pershing was the only member of the cast to reprise her role a few years later when King Syndicate and Marvel Productions lumped the franchise with two others for DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH.

[Hielario]

Huh. I didn't know Flash Gordon already had a cartoon back then. Too young for anything older than the 90s animated series. I wonder if the elder fans down home knew about it (classic american adventure strips used to be pretty big with them).
I think I saw a "Defenders of the earth" TV special once...it was pretty bland, even for a kid with antiquated tastes like I was.  

Since social media is so full of nonsense right now, I think I'll gush here about the last number of Cthulhu magazine instead of there (ECI may be extremely erratic about selling comics, but them having a subsidiary chain here means I can get stuff in my language in this country w/o additional shipping charges! Yay!).

This number 27 has been good, even in ways I didn't expect. I'll go through every story:

-Cover illustration by Salvador Sanz: Some sort of harpy stretching her wings while perched on a plane's wing. Beautiful and mysterious , but I bet I would be pretty weirded out if I saw her from a plane window.

-The last woman, by Ramón Pereira & Paco Redondo (10 page, B&W): A survivor of a sudden zombie epidemic in Barcelona despairs for sustenance and remembers how everything suddenly went wrong, with a pinch of cynical humor here and there. I think the last page didn't work but it was really solid.

-The doll, by Rizzo&Viñolo (4 pages, B&W). An attempt to subvert the "cursed doll" cliché that didn't work for me, even if the art was good. Looked cool on the preview, kind of disappointing.

-For pleasure, by Kundo Krunch (8 pages, B&W). A man drives to some motel for a sexual encounter and a serial killer monologue explains their actual purpose, with a final surprise. The art style is grimy and simplified but it works perfectly, even in the long sex scene (that somehow also feels erotic at the same time), and the narrative rythm is perfect. One of the best stories in this number, even if I have trouble explaining how.

-The pesanta's hunger, by César Herce&Jesús C. Gan (10 page, B&W with a lot of shading). A nightmare-inducing creature tries to prey on the weak and gets a nasty surprise. The Storm Conjurer, a sort of sorcerer who goes around dealing with horrors from spanish folklore, apparently became a beloved long-running feature of the magazine some years ago when I wasn't buying it. The quality varies because it changes team in every issue, but this one is good enough. Horror born not only from indefension, but also from remorse, it's an interesting theme for this story.

-Alone and her soul, by Manuel Mota (2 pages, B&W). An adaptation of that famous microstory about the last person in earth, it feels bloated, like it has no other purpose than filling space in the magazine.

-I destroyed the earth, by PacoMan with illustrations by Julio Nieto (4 pages, B&W illustrated prose). A scifi story about a returning astronaut exterminating most remains of humanity out of disgust. The prose felt flat while trying to be edgy, and the illustrations were too obviously photo/model sourced. The magazine sometimes features illustrated prose along comics, but this one was a waste of space.

-Intelligences, by Ogalla&Zarco (6 pages, full color). A depressed robot explains to a dragonfly his despair about surviving after humanity destroyed itself and most species in the world through nuclear war, fearing robots are as short-sighted and evolutively stuck as their human creators were, and arrives to a surprising decision. I've heard Paco Zarco's name before, and now I understand why, the story and pacing is amazing, it's despairing and melancholic without being droning. And the art has a lot of personality! A funny little detail: I'm often annoyed at how metallic, shiny and overblown computer-colored comics on paper look to me, but the last page of this story suddenly blew my mind weaponizing all of that for incredible effect!

-Toilet, by Alfonso Bueno & Edu Molina (10 pages, full color). A man is annoyed, and then trapped in a department store's toilets just for his rude answer, or so it appears.  I had already read one or two stories by this duo in the magazine, but this one goes leagues beyond that. Everything just works perfectly in this story. The narrative structure is uncommon but perfectly understandable, and the art conveys tone perfectly. I thought the random red/pink splotches were a printing error, but somehow they're working with the story, esp. at that panel, and they help keep things lively over the cold blue of the store. The reference to pandemic measures recontextualizes completely the story, and the introduction of a sexual element is so well done it doesn't feel like homophobic cliché. I think this might be the best story in the issue.

-The neighborhood in the underground, by Diego Guerra (8 pages, full color). A tired freelancer recounts for an unseem interviewer how he ended up at, and escaped, a bizarre and miserable neighborhood. This one is odd...feels somehow professional but amateurish, like it was done by a very competent visual professional who is new to comics. The perspectives and distances feel all wrong; the detailed, probably photosourced characters don't integrate with their vague, foggy backgrounds. But it gets points for not doing the typical surprise ending, and for subjecting the male protagonist to blatant sexual attention from women, both good and bad.

-Every night, by Josep Salvia (6 pages, tritone). A man has fallen in unrequited, distant, calmly lustful love with a woman who appears every night in his bathroom in his dreams. The visual style feels out of place in the beginning since it's more typical of a serious, intellectual graphic novel, but somehow it works. Not bad!

-The colony, by Emilio Balcarce and Oski Yañez (4 pages, full color). An armed squad is sent to investigate the sudden radio silence of the first wholly 3-D printed colony in Mars, and they find out horribly. This one looked good in online previews, I liked the premise and the armor designs reminded me of 80s magazines, but it turned out a complete disappointment. The narrative reveal feels flat and the action, stilted. I guess giving the human characters food names is the writer's idea of a joke? I think it might have benefitted from getting more pages to explore the premise.

-A wonderful dinner, by Lubrïo & Viñolo (6 pages, full color). A little old man in a luxurious house has the last fish in Earth served for dinner by his servants. You think it's going to be about a rich asshole and human greed destroying the world, but then it becomes something completely different about memories, caring, and kindness for the last member of a dying species...

Spoiler:

. Everything works perfectly.

-Kadath. Episode 1: Dylath-Leen, by Florentino Flórez, Guillermo Sanna and Jacques Salomon (24 pages [seriously?], full color). What would Cthulhu magazine be without some lovecraftian stuff? This time, it seems to be something inspired by the "Dreamlands" stories. A vaguely anglo man travels through a beautiful and exotic land in search of the gods, but gets misled and kidnapped by evil creatures, who take him along to meet their "masters". I honestly don't get what is the deal with this story. The art is amazing, but the dialogue feels really wrong, incomplete; and then things just sort of happen along the way. Though I loved the silly "wheee!" face one the evil black galley people makes while their ship is falling through the border of the world and they're bracing for impact. The protagonist is losing his shit and the ¿guy? on his right is like "yayyy, rollercoaster".

-Back cover illustration: A repeat of the final splash page in the last story, with the bizarre head-tentacled "masters" coming out from inside the galley. It's a great choice.

All in all, this number was really satisfying, even if deciding to order or not from the official twitter preview of the issue, like I've been doing for the last three years, has partially failed me. Even the bad stories were better than usual.

It's odd how several of the stories had a sexual element this time. Sex is not a taboo topic for the magazine, but it's not present that often, at least when I buy it.  A recurring thing in a non-themed issue feels strange. Though at least all those stories did it well (I still remember that terrible one in a Science Fiction special years ago...).

The pages are smudging each other a little again, but I think it's less than the previous time. 

I hope next number is this good again, but with this magazine, who knows! Then again, for twelve euros an issue I get that it can't be all bangers all time. Price has gone up a little from the ten it used to be when I started reading, but it's still affordable.

[Datelessman]

Huh. I didn't know Flash Gordon already had a cartoon back then. Too young for anything older than the 90s animated series. I wonder if the elder fans down home knew about it (classic american adventure strips used to be pretty big with them).
I think I saw a "Defenders of the earth" TV special once...it was pretty bland, even for a kid with antiquated tastes like I was.

I was technically alive for some of them but I never saw them at the time, either. Reruns of Flash Gordon would have been playing alongside new episodes of HE-MAN & THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (which, since it was Filmation, reused a ton of backgrounds/animation/voice actors from it anyway). And DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH was something I never watched. But part of the fun of growing up is rediscovering things you missed, such as PIRATES OF DARK WATER, THE SLAYERS, or SWATCATS.

I had no idea Cthulhu had his/its own magazine, but I shouldn't be surprised. The only horror themed magazine I am mildly aware of is FANGORIA, the longest running horror magazine in the U.S. It's been publishing 4 issues a year (quarterly) since 1979 (albeit with a 3 year period of no print issues and some kerfuffle regarding ownership lately). They occasionally have a booth at some comic cons I have gone to, or I randomly used to see an issue of it on sale at larger comic shops. I'm very casual regarding horror; I've seen some films here and there but I am no real buff. I mean I grew up in the 80s and 90s; by law I almost had to watch a few slasher movies. And some classics, like the WOLF-MAN, and some not so classics, like BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA (a thing that exists).

Moving on...

I mentioned it a few times but I did get around to rewatching another classic cartoon from the 1980s, which I'd never seen until I binged it on YouTube around 2009-2010 and then hadn't glimpsed it since. And I would actually consider it a lost gem and a piece of animation history, even though it represents one of the most bizarre merchandising strategies of the 1980s; selling R-rated film franchises to kids by recreating them as vaguely affiliated cartoons. I am talking about the 1988 animated ROBOCOP series.

Although the script had floated around Hollywood for years, Orion finally got the film "ROBOCOP" made in 1987, and it was a huge hit as a biting satire of "Reagan's America" drenched with mega-violence. Watching it now, and seeing the things it warned of five minutes into the future -- such as cops acting/dressing as soldiers, mega-corporations owning municipalities, and TV journalists reduced to vapid, useless talking heads -- it almost looks like a documentary. The problem is all that easily got lost because RoboCop himself was, essentially, a superhero character (complete with a cool costume, powers, and tragic origin). Coupled into the fact that robots were proven toy sellers to kids (long before TRANSFORMERS), it was probably no surprise that Orion decided to reconfigure the franchise to try to get some of that sweet kiddie money. After all, RAMBO and CHUCK NORRIS got animated series based on R-rated films.

(And for the record, DIC's INSPECTOR GADGET cartoon pre-dated the ROBOCOP film by at least 5 years. So many people, including official online sources, claim Gadget was a spoof of RoboCop, but it wasn't, because it pre-dated it. It was a spoof of GET SMART/SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, with a pinch of DYNOMUTT.)

Orion teamed up with Marvel Productions/New World Animation to produce the animated series for broadcast syndication. It aired under the "Marvel Animation Universe" block alongside "DINO-RIDERS" and reruns of other Marvel cartoons from the 70s and 80s, and one other pilot episode that I'll get to later. Like with many cartoons of the time, the idea was to sell toys to kids, and this case it was "RoboCop & The Ultra Police" by Kenner (best known for selling Batman toys forever). The executive producer was Margaret Loesch and the staff who worked on storyboards/direction/writing included Larry Houston, Frank Paur, Will Meugniot, Donald F. Glut and Marv Wolfman. They're not only all animation and/or comic book veterans, but they also would all team up for FoxKids' "X-MEN" four years later. And I would argue that one of the key things which makes this ROBOCOP cartoon shine is that it is almost a pre-X-Men, as it covers similar themes of prejudice, discrimination, urban blight, and oppressive enforcement of anyone marked "other." Many of the ideas Loesch was convinced that American kids were ready to see in animation, and which got produced in "X-MEN" in 1992, see their genesis here.

Much as I stated above for "BEETLEJUICE," the primary problem with adapting an "adult" film into a children's cartoon is how closely rooted to the film can the 'toon be? The producers expect kids to be aware of that film and even maybe to have seen it, but obviously they cannot bring mega-violence or "adult themes" into a cartoon (especially during the 1980s). That said, the 1988 ROBOCOP cartoon stuck as close to the film's continuity as it could, at least picking up after the first act of the film and then loosely covering some of the character beats across 12 episodes. Many of the characters from the film turn up in the cartoon, though their roles at times are different, and many allowances are made. Here is the intro:



The intro demonstrates how the cartoon uses a few different words and some clever storyboarding to avoid technically showing extreme violence, but implying it heavily. And it also summarizes the first act (or half hour) of the film. Sure, this time Alex J. Murphy is "mortally wounded" and not killed by Clarence Boddicker and his gang, but that's just splitting hairs. Now, the bit where things cut away JUST before Murphy is shot seems like small potatoes now, but in 1988 this was risky. Just a few years earlier in the final season of SUPERFRIENDS, Batman got his origin animated for the first time, although the camera cuts away from the alley and a bolt of lightning is shown to cover the gunshot. And the second season of "SPIDER-MAN & HIS AMAZING FRIENDS" did Spider-Man's origin, and something similar, to allude to Ben Parker being shot without seeing it. So this intro with Murphy was about as close as you could get to someone being shot in a kid's show in 1988.

Spoiler:

Twelve episodes was brief for the debut season of a cartoon in 1988, but there was a reason for that. Marvel Productions, and most of the staff behind ROBOCOP, took the budget that would have been used for a 13th episode and instead funnelled it into a pilot episode for X-Men animated by Toei and titled, "Pryde of the X-Men." The pilot aired in 1989 as part of that "Marvel Animation Universe" block, and would be released on VHS, but NBC never bit on the X-Men, and they started over from scratch once FoxKids wanted a new show for 1992. So much as the themes were like a pre-X-Men, RoboCop's budget ultimately led to the mutants hitting TV. It likely didn't help that in 1988, THUNDERCATS was big and NINJA TURTLES was gaining steam with its second season.

Three episodes were released on VHS in 1991 (episodes 1, 5, and 8, "A Robot's Revenge," which is a culturally insensitive episode regarding Middle Eastern diplomats), likely to be available in video shops alongside the sequel film. Aside for that, the show was never released officially, and I imagine the rights are a problem since Orion is involved with RoboCop, even if Marvel produced the cartoon. The only clue I ever had that this show existed is one local Blockbuster that had one of the episodes available for rent.

For more X-MEN connections, the show was animated by AKOM, the South Korean animation studio which would later animate X-MEN, as well as a heap of THE SIMPSONS. And the Canadian voice cast featured many voice actors who would later appear on X-MEN, especially Len Carson (best known for voicing Robert Kelly). General geeks will be most impressed by Susan Roman as Anne Lewis, since she's best known as the original English voice for Sailor Jupiter on SAILOR MOON (and was one of the only actresses who stuck with it when the dubbing switched from DIC to Pioneer/Geneon). Susan Roman voiced a few guest characters for X-MEN, especially Callisto, Scarlet Witch and Amelia Voght, as well as tons of other anime and cartoons. RoboCop was voiced by Robert Bockstael, who also had some minor roles on X-MEN and other shows but also voiced Prince Diamond and Tsunawataro on SAILOR MOON.

Though brief, the 1988 ROBOCOP cartoon also foretold more commercial expanding of the franchise. The film "ROBOCOP 2" hit in 1990, followed by a live action TV show (that ran for 21 episodes plus a pilot film) in 1994, which was also more kid-friendly. "ROBOCOP 3" hit in 1993 (which, like the first sequel was co-written by Frank Miller), and was one of the biggest bombs of the era. But it barely slowed the franchise as a second cartoon, "ROBOCOP: ALPHA COMMANDO," debuted in 1998 with a whopping 40 episodes. That show used to come on a local station around 6:30-7:00 a.m. on weekdays and I used to watch it before high school. Despite the updated animation, the tone wasn't as biting as the 1988 show (and RoboCop himself has more gadgets like roller skates and helicopter blades). Barely daunted, the franchise eked into the 21st century with "ROBOCOP: PRIME DIRECTIVES," a series of 4 TV movies which aired on Canada's Space channel but randomly aired on SyFy in the states (and got home video releases). They were darker than the earlier TV material but ignored all film sequels in terms of continuity and were super low budget (like "$200 more dollars than the average YouTube video" low). Then, of course, nothing until a reboot film in 2014. That still means RoboCop released media material in every decade from 1980-2020, which is insane.

I don't think this is on streaming but it should be available on YouTube or via bootleg, and if anyone is interested in the character or 80s animation, I'd recommend it. Between the skilled storyboards and the fact that the star was mostly mechanical, 1988's ROBOCOP gets away with quite a lot of animated violence. Because RoboCop is bulletproof, he's allowed to be shot by normal bullets, while he and Lewis use laser pistols and shoot perps all the time (or "stun" them). Animation allowed RoboCop to move a bit more fluidly (even if slow enough that Hedgecock once called him "a Titanium turtle"), and he throws cars, swings street lamps, tears into other 'bots and punches people. Even Anne Lewis gets to TKO one punk with a punch to the nose, and facial blows were super rare in 1980s animation.

A few meme videos have made fun of some of the dialogue out of context, but for the time it was about as good as it could be...at least until the 90s when animation was truly allowed to upgrade.

[Werel]

The Changeling is really good so far. There's not enough ponderous, sad, surreal, emotional horror content out there for my tastes, especially about/by Black people, especially incorporating supernatural traditions from multiple cultures, especially starring some of my favorite actors (and Samuel T. Herring in a dramatic role?? I gotta see more of this).

[Datelessman]

I sometimes worry that I "flood" this topic a lot, especially since my posts are rarely brief here. For this reason I've taken to only talking about "Entertainment Joys" after I finish binging them, rather than in instalments like I did for 1987 TMNT, CAPTAIN PLANET, X-MEN, and THE SLAYERS (albeit with the latter there was an awesome discussion of it with KMR so chopping it up in real time made sense). But it's been 3 weeks and someone else posted in between my text walls, so now's the time for another! Once again I dip into the past for a series that I did enjoy as a kid, but via various circumstances fell out of watching and then always wanted to revisit. I was often thwarted by out-of-print DVD volumes. It is a series which has been lauded by many as the best animated series based on a video game, at least before CASTLEVANIA debuted on Netflix. It is also a series, which in my opinion, helped birth the fetish fandom known as "furries" in modern day after HEATHCLIFF & THE CADILLIAC CATS and TINY TOON ADVENTURES, and at the same time as SWATKATS: THE RADICAL SQUADRON (and to a lessor degree, ANIMANIACS). And where there are furries, drama tends to follow (though not always due to them).

I am talking about ABC's SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. Not to be confused with THE ADVENTURES OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, produced by the same studio (DIC, now WildBrain), which debuted at the same time and featured the same star. Perhaps for that reason, most fans refer to it as "Sonic SatAM," since it aired on ABC on Saturday mornings for two seasons (26 episodes total) from 1993-1994.

In 1989, Sega wanted to more directly compete with Nintendo by crafting a follow up to their "Sega Master System" (or Mega-Drive in Europe), which got called the Sega Genesis in the U.S. At the time consoles weren't just sold with graphics and games; they needed gimmicks and mascots. Nintendo, of course, had Super Mario. Initially, the unofficial mascot for the Genesis was Alex Kidd, a weird character who starred in a series of games for the Master System and was included in one of the launch games for the Genesis. But he didn't take and in 1990, Nintendo blew everyone out of the water with SUPER MARIO BROS. 3. So it was back to the drawing board for a plucky new mascot and they finally crafted one with the debut of the first Sonic game in 1991. It was a big hit and the hype for the second game the following year was even bigger, especially since it introduced his sidekick, Tails. Sonic-mania was born with a third game in development (along with SONIC CD for the Sega CD add-on), and Sega wanted to bring their mascot to the small screen, just as Nintendo did with Mario. The natural choice to do so was DIC (then called "DIC Animation City"), since that was the production house which crafted video game cartoon hits like THE SUPER MARIO BROS. SUPER SHOW and CAPTAIN N: THE GAME MASTER in the late 80s. There was really no one else; they were the Warner Brothers of video game shows until the mid-90s.

Things got complicated very quickly. ABC, likely hungry for another Saturday morning hit after losing "BEETLEJUICE" to FoxKids in '91, agreed with Sega and DIC to air the show. A pilot was drafted with the aim to air in Fall 1992. However, DIC wanted to expand to weekday afternoons and capitalize on the popularity of Sonic, much as they'd done with THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS (which by the end was SLIMER & THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS). Mark Pedowitz, the then-VP at ABC, wanted their network to be the exclusive station for Sonic and did not agree to the expansion. As a result, DIC decided to literally produce two different Sonic shows at the same time, with ABC wanting their show to be distinctly different than the weekday show. The weekday show was called ADVENTURES OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG and featured a theme song similar to the game with more Loony Tunes/Tex Avery style slapstick antics. The series starred Sonic and Tails, with the villain Dr. Robotnik being paired with two original characters, the dimwitted robots Scratch and Grounder. It ran for 65 episodes, which was standard for broadcast syndication at the time.

ABC's "Sonic SatAM" was a different beast entirely. In fact I vaguely recall ABC airing a half hour prime time special in which some "hip" teenage actors promoted the fall slate of animated series for '93, with this show being presented as the centerpiece. I forget if these actors were from a sitcom I didn't watch (like GROWING PAINS) or were just randoms. Although the pilot episode, "Heads or Tails," featured some of the slapstick and visual toony humor as the syndicated show, the tone changed drastically once ABC made demands for a more unique product. And much like some of DIC's earlier video game cartoons of the 80s, modern fans don't always appreciate how sparse the games themselves were regarding the plot and/or cast at the time. The only named characters that the show's writers and producers (namely Len Janson as story editor alongside writers Ben Hurst and Pat Allee, among others) had to work with were Sonic himself, Tails, and Dr. Robotnik (renamed from Dr. Eggman in Japan for reasons which confound me; I only assume since America was still in the Cold War in 1990-1991, an obvious Russian name was seen as more workable). As such, they created a whole host of fellow anthropomorphic characters to back up Sonic as well as expanded upon the plot of the games, inventing things whole cloth. Hurst would admit in an interview in 2007 that neither he or the show's writers ever played the games; they were merely shown brief snippets of game footage early on in the process.

The premise of the show is presented with an awesome intro and a legendary theme song, "Fastest Thing Alive," and expanded upon over the course of two seasons.

The events take place on the planet Mobius (which was unnamed in the games). It was once a teaming anthro-paradise which mostly thrived on advanced technology mingled with ancient magic, with the capital city being Mobotropolis ruled by King Acorn (a chimpmunk voiced by Tim Curry) and his royal council (which included Sir Charles Hedgehog). Dr. Robotnik conquered the land and terraformed it into a dark and polluted maze of factories and machinery, and rules with an endless swarm of robots (primarily humanoid ones called Swatbots). He renamed the city Robotropolis and uses a horrific machine called a Roboticizer to transform any creature into a robot via some kind of transmutation. Sonic and his pals consist of the Freedom Fighters trying to kick Robotnik off the planet and save Mobius, and find a way to reverse the Roboticizer's effects on their friends and family. Aside for the pilot, the first season is fairly serious with the only comedy mostly coming from Sonic's endless barrage of one-liners and "cool" 90s dialogue (and one woeful character). No music from the game is present and in fact the score is closer to a superhero show; the theme that plays when Sonic runs could be synched with Superman and it would still be appropriate. It is also an episodic season, with a general subplot of liberation but presenting the stakes for most characters and allowing each to have a focus episode. The second season has more of a subplot across most episodes regarding a spy and thwarting Robotnik's "Doomsday" weapon. However, ABC meddled again and wanted more comedy, so some of the seriousness takes a backseat with a couple of flat-out slapstick episodes shoved into the last half. The entire show is really a case example of writers and producers locking horns with a TV network at almost every turn.

My hot take? I was glad to finally revisit the show, since I'd fallen off somewhere after season one. It is good and definitely the best video game cartoon to come out of the 80s and 90s, and still mostly holds up. That said, the fandom surrounding this show has probably caused it to become overrated. Some people treat it like it is on par with GARGOYLES, and with the best will in the world, it isn't close. That said, it does feature some excellent storyboarding and a veteran voice cast of some of the best talent at their peak. It's practically a TINY TOONS reunion.

Spoiler:

Despite the fact that the primary enemies are robots, the cartoon shows them getting smashed or destroyed very rarely (despite the intro). Despite the fact that Sonic's "spin" is shown as being able to saw through metal doors or solid rock, he never uses it against any Swatbots. Instead Sonic usually uses his surroundings against them, or spins in place to create a typhoon.

After the show ended, ABC immediately replaced it with their cartoon sequel to FREE WILLY; however, it did air in syndication on USA Network from 1997-1998. The legacy of this show lasted far beyond those two seasons from 1993-1994. It served as the basis for Archie Comics' licensed SONIC THE HEDGEHOG comic, which ran for 290 issues from 1993-2016. That incredible 23 year run, outlasting TMNT ADVENTURES as the only "adventure series" Archie kept publishing, literally won a Guiness World Record for the longest running single volume of a comic book based on a video game. That means characters from this cartoon were still sporadically appearing in print up until the month Barack Obama left the White House. And this is where the drama I mentioned arose.

DIC produced "SONIC UNDERGROUND" in 1999, which also starred Jaleel White and featured many of the same writers as "Sonic SatAM." However, it was a completely new continuity and was intended to help promote Sega's last console, the Dreamcast. It ran 40 episodes but is mostly considered to be a confusing, ambitious mess with an uneven tone. In 2002, DIC started producing "DIC MOVIE TOONS" for Nickelodeon which justified them making animated TV movies involving quite a few prior or cancelled series, such as INSPECTOR GADGET, ARCHIE'S WEIRD MYSTERIES, SABRINA: THE ANIMATED SERIES, and DENNIS THE MENACE. Perhaps in relation to this, Ben Hurst tried to appeal to Sega to get an animated Sonic movie made to continue the storyline. According to Hurst, a Sega executive that he'd spoken to was receptive of the idea, but by this time, the current writer/artist of Archie's Sonic comic book, Ken Penders, became aware of the project. The history is a bit muddled with two perspectives, but the gist is that while Hurst imagined Penders being involved in the project, Penders wanted to write it entirely as his own vehicle. Penders called the Sega executive and reportedly screwed the call up so badly that when Hurst checked back in, the Sega guy pulled a 180 and vowed that only Sega alone would work on continuing Sonic's legacy. Penders, for his part, had some legitimate industry contacts such as animation storyboarder/director Larry Houston involved and also produced some art for the project, which depicted Mobius as exploding around 2003. However, the project died in the cradle with most sources crediting it to Penders' zealousness. Ben Hurst died in 2010, only three years after SHOUT! Factory released the show on DVD and filmed an interview of him (and Jaleel White). That collection, like their similarly cool set of the first 26 episodes of INSPECTOR GADGET, went out of print a year later with subsequent releases being more bare bones. NCircle Entertainment started re-releasing it as single discs from 2008-2010, collecting 23 out of 26 episodes. Those went out of print when WildBrain took over DIC's library in 2012, as well as ownership issues with Archie Comics. That got settled earlier this year, and NCircle released a cheap box set which I now own.

Ken Penders was far from done with hedgehog controversy. He was the primary writer for the Sonic comic from 1993-2006, and also wrote a spinoff for Knuckles from 1997-1999. During that span he created a slew of characters to the comic, especially relating to Knuckles. In 2009, Penders decided to sue Archie Comics for the copyright to all the characters he created for them, and things got messy fast. The US Copyright Office certified Penders' claims in 2010, and it was revealed during trial that Archie was so sloppy with record keeping that not only could they not produce an original copy of their contract with Penders, they hadn't kept original copies of contracts of ANYONE who had EVER worked on Sonic for them. The case was settled in 2013, with Penders being victorious and keeping the rights to some 200 characters. Penders also sued Sega (unsuccessfully) in 2011, claiming the game SONIC CHRONICLES: DARK BROTHERHOOD ripped him off. The revelations during the trial with Archie opened them up to future suits. They rebooted the comics' continuity in 2012 to focus more on the game lore, and perhaps by no coincidence, ended their licensing agreement with Sega three years after losing the suit (and just as another former Sonic comic creator, Scott Fulop, unsuccessfully tried suing them). IDW Publishing obtained the license in 2017 but stuck exclusively to game characters. The cast from 1993-1994 were officially gone, as if snapped out of reality by Thanos.

This split the fandom. While Penders could be seen as yet another stalwart comic creator trying to assert ownership after being exploited by a larger publisher, others blame him for causing their fictional universe to ultimately be lost. Supposedly, one of the reasons why Sega has been more shy regarding Knuckles in recent years versus the 90s and early 2000s is because the company dreads another lawsuit from Penders anytime spare anthro-echidnas are used in Sonic lore. On Twitter/X, Penders claimed to want to sue over the second Sonic film because Knuckles' parents are too close to his copyrighted characters. And besides being very litigious, what did Penders do with his victory? He announced that he would produce a seven volume graphic novel series called "THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES," starring Knuckles' daughter with some serial numbers filed off various bits to avoid angering Sega. And after working on it for 13 years, including a full decade after winning the lawsuit, Penders has produced...absolutely nothing. He occasionally shares art on social media, his website, or convention appearances, but some fans likely feel he blew up some of their favorite comics and/or meddles with Sega's Sonic projects with nothing to show for it. In the meanwhile, Sonic the Hedgehog has become one of IDW's best selling licenses (after TMNT and Star Trek).

The fanbase is STILL passionate for this series. There's a YouTube channel, Team Sea3on, dedicated to animating a fan-continuation themselves. Not only did they produce an animated trailer for it last year, but they got two members of Crush 40 to sing a remix of the theme-song. That's pretty incredible: https://www.youtube.com/@TeamSea3on/videos

As for me? I was surprised that there was no outcry for Jaleel White to reprise the role when a Sonic movie finally did happen. I mean, the masses emerged to demand the CGI in the film be altered, and Peter Cullen is still voicing Optimus Prime in movies primarily due to this. There've been two Sonic movies and White didn't even get a Stan Lee style cameo in one; it seems like kind of a waste. But maybe that's because he was the first voice of Sonic for my generation. Sonic's presence on TV wouldn't be rare; we got SONIC X, SONIC BOOM, and SONIC PRIME since 2003, which is more longevity than Super Mario had in that medium. But none of them reached the heights or are as fondly remembered as this show. I do think it's been overrated, but the bar for quality video game shows is very low. I did enjoy the revisit and finally getting to see how the series ended.

[Hielario]

Some short freeware point&click games I enjoyed these last months:

-Elsewhere in the night, by Cosmic Void:  A faceless detective who talks to the dead has to investigate a disappearance, and then murder, in a dystopian city that reminds me of Shadowrun. Retro- inspired but with an uncommon reference: Sierra's Manhunter 1 and 2. The limited visuals and the couple of actual music tracks it has SLAP, and fortunately the puzzles are more reasonable than its inspirator. But just like it, it has some grisly stuff(there is, however, a censorship option).

-Shards of a god, by Honza Vávra  : A combination of Dune, Agatha Cristie and the first PC Discworld. Two nuns have to figure out how their immortal god-emperor has been murdered by combing the imperial capital for clues.Very entertaining, even if the puzzle solutions feel a little too risky from a narrative standpoint; then again, considering what the protagonist is dealing with...

-La maleta, by Potajito: An interactive adaptation of a poem about the struggles of Canary Islands' inhabitants with poverty and foreigner influx. It made me sigh (in a good way). Barely qualifies as an adventure game but I thought the second half was ingenious. You can change the language to English in- game https://potajito.itch.io/la-maleta

-Cube Escape: Paradox / Rusty Lake: Paradox: A short live-action film and a video game bundled together and interconnected. Detective Vandermeer wakes up in a bizarre and alien room full of oddities and has to figure how to get out...and his own memories while he's at it, or he'll keep waking up back inside. Both are great visually, and the puzzles hit that sweet spot between difficult and self-contained. There are even a few extra in-game trophies to unlock through alternate puzzle solutions if you pay attention to details in the film...I never had interest in those until this game, and I unlocked them all in less than a week: that should give you an idea of how absorbing it is! There is a paid second chapter and I might end up buying it.

-Samsara room: A remake of an old game by the same creators. It's an escape-the-room game where you keep shifting between iterations of the same room that get weirder and weirder the further you go. A neat pastime.

[Datelessman]

For some checklist stuff, movies I have seen recently include TMNT: MUTANT MAYHEM and THE MARVELS. I liked both, though the former more than the latter. The sheer amount of online hatred Captain Marvel and/or Brie Larson gets online is disgusting, though.

My next "entertainment joy" combines a few things popular here; video games and old school anime. I may have typed briefly about this in the past (like 10+ pages ago), I forget. But this time I am getting more into it, especially since it's one of the foundational anime of my collection. As I have said a few times, the very first anime I ever got was an edited version of STREET FIGHTER II: THE ANIMATED MOVIE from a local Toys R' Us in the mid-90s (aside for some reruns of VOLTRON in the 80s that I hardly remember). It was an easy "gateway anime" because it featured a franchise and characters I was familiar with. And while anime based on video games has continued into today, anime based on fighting games in particular seemed to peak during the 1990s (with Capcom's Street Fighter getting the lion's share, including another theatrical animated film, STREET FIGHTER: ALPHA, that hit around 1999-2000). I'd gotten a few standalone anime films or OAV's after that purchase, but the very first "series" which I owned and cared passionate about to complete was an anime based on SNK's answer to Street Fighter, as well as one of first anime series that VIZ Media, then known as VIZ Video, began to dub (after RANMA 1/2). Yes, I am talking about the FATAL FURY anime.

While Capcom released the original STREET FIGHTER in arcades around 1987 and "fighting games" in primitive forms existed before that, the entire industry was revolutionized with the sequel, STREET FIGHTER II, that hit the Japanese arcade circuit in February, 1991 (and the U.S. not long after). An ex-Capcom employee, Takashi Nishiyama, who'd created the original STREET FIGHTER, wound up working for Capcom's competitor, SNK (owner of the NEO-GEO gaming system). A mere 7 months after STREET FIGHTER II hit, SNK spat out their own response with FATAL FURY: KING OF FIGHTERS. Utilizing the then-novel approach of two-lane fighting, while FATAL FURY never supplanted Street Fighter in popularity, it eked out its own niche and became a founding game to an SNK "universe" of fighters which would go on to include ART OF FIGHTING and, eventually, KING OF FIGHTERS itself. Yet what fans may not know was that SNK and Neo-Geo got their creation, Fatal Fury, into the anime circuit years before Capcom did with Street Fighter. Their timing was perfect, as they were produced around when anime popularity in the U.S. was on the rise, and thus a new market outside Japan was available.

Admittedly, part of the problem with the FATAL FURY anime was some of the titling. Though produced and released as a trilogy, the third instalment, FATAL FURY: THE MOTION PICTURE, sat on VHS anime shelves alongside other products called "THE MOTION PICTURE" and it was easy for someone, like me, to assume it was a similar standalone product. I bought my original VHS copy at a local BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO store when I was about 12-13 years old, since I was aware of the franchise and thought, "Cool, another fighting game anime." And while the flick is very enjoyable on its own, it references prior material which at the time I didn't know if it came from the games or something else. Later, visiting a local NOBODY BEATS THE WIZ, I encountered a VHS copy of FATAL FURY 2: THE NEW BATTLE. I assumed it was a sequel, but it turned out to feature events referenced in the movie, so I realized it was a prequel. Somewhere, there was a "Fatal Fury 1." In those ancient pre-Internet (or pre-common Internet days), anime dubbers used to include literal, physical postcards into their VHS tapes where folks could check off stuff and include their address for a newsletter and/or a catalogue, so long as they were willing to pay for the postage of that card. I did that and sure enough, VIZ sent me a mail order catalogue which had the FATAL FURY anime right on page one (alongside another then-new release for them, OGRE SLAYER). Ordering that final instalment was, literally, the first time I ordered anime by mail. Up until that point I'd only purchased them from local stores or from SUNCOAST VIDEO, which was further away via train. So my first experience was watching the series in reverse.

Given how young I was, FATAL FURY made quite a lasting impression on me. It tempered my expectations for a while and once I had the full trilogy, it became the "gateway anime" for almost all of my male friends in junior high and high school. Since all three were about 3.5 hours long combined, it was easy to make an afternoon of a viewing session, and some pals were willing to rewatch it 2-3 times. I later got other anime of various types and my tastes expanded as I grew up, but it's a "series" which remains near and dear to my heart. Now, I will admit, it's hardly the greatest and no one would or should compare it with the likes of COWBOY BEBOP or SLAYERS or OUTLAW STAR or any "best of" anime titles that always make the rounds (at least of anime from the 90s). I will 100% cop to viewing it with "nostalgia goggles." But I also genuinely believe that if you want an anime based on a fighting game which is more than a one-shot film or OAV, you can't do better than this. It is the "Hamlet" of fighting game anime. I have watched darn near every fighting game anime that exists, which includes more obscure ones like BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN (yes, that got an anime) and SAMURAI SHOWDOWN, and this is by far the best (though not the longest).

The irony is when Western companies like DIC make (or made) cartoons based on video games and change things, often due to a lack of "official" story material, some fans can get salty about it (i.e. the Ruby-Spears MEGAMAN). Yet when anime companies in Japan do the same, that's seen as more tolerable. The FATAL FURY anime was released as two TV specials on FUJI TV and the aforementioned animated film from 1992-1994. Each one was produced with the prior year's FATAL FURY game in mind and usually released when a new one was coming out or still "fresh." This meant that, ironically, the character roster was usually a year behind the games. And the film hit in 1994, a year when SNK had no new Fatal Fury video game releases (and the one from 1993, FATAL FURY SPECIAL, was just a re-release of FATAL FURY 2 with more bells and whistles, much like Capcom did with STREET FIGHTER II TURBO). Masami Ōbari, who worked as an animation and video game designer (mostly of mecha) during the mid-1980s and early 90s on projects such as TRANSFORMERS, FIGHT! IZCER ONE, and BUBBLEGUM CRISIS provided all of the character designs for the FATAL FURY anime, and directed the motion picture. Not only was he tasked with introducing SNK's mascots to another audience, but he created a few original characters to boot. The music for both TV specials and the film was composed by Toshihiko Sahashi, an industry veteran likely best known these days for GUNDAM SEED, GUNDAM SEED DESTINY, FULL METAL PANIC, and HUNTER X HUNTER. Both TV specials (though not the film) were directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi, best known not only for GUNDAM or GET-BACKERS material but especially for RUROUNI KENSHIN. The animation for all was done by STUDIO COMET, a lessor known Japanese studio (at least compared to, say, Madhouse, Toei, Bones, Studio Ghibli, and TMS) which still mostly handles TV anime to this day.

The first TV special, FATAL FURY: LEGEND OF THE HUNGRY WOLF, debuted on Fuji TV in 1992 and was dubbed and sold by VIZ in 1994. At 45 minutes it is the shortest of the three and also the simplest as a basic "martial arts revenge" story. It utilizes the cast from the first FATAL FURY game in 1991, which was VERY sausage heavy. The notion of including even one token woman in a fighting game, as STREET FIGHTER II did with Chun-Li, was still a "novelty" at the time (though not for much longer). Obari solves this problem by creating a tragic heroine unique to the anime, and while this special is pretty "basic," it proves to the the foundation to the entire trilogy. Events from it are still critical when the film comes along two years later. That said, while the "series" improves with every instalment, this makes LEGEND OF THE HUNGRY WOLF the worst of the trilogy. But that's forgivable to me, and hardly unheard of for trilogies.

Spoiler:

The sequel, FATAL FURY 2: THE NEW BATTLE aired on Fuji TV in 1993 and was also dubbed and released by VIZ in the U.S. in '94. At 75 minutes it is almost twice as long as the prior chapter, and follows the plot of the FATAL FURY 2 video game in a much looser fashion. It saddles Terry with a kid, which kind of predicted where the character would go in the games (where Terry would eventually raise Geese's son, Rock Howard). Since the kid didn't pop up in the games in 1992 and certainly didn't have a name, once again Obari makes some original characters. In quite a few ways the plot is similar to ROCKY III, where the hero is resting on his laurels a bit and winds up vulnerable to the latest monster opponent. It also says something about the cycle of violence and how various fighters are motivated by what happened to their fathers, only in different directions. Incredibly, there's a scene which VIZ never dubbed specifically because they wanted to sell the more expensive subtitled version of this as "uncut." Back in the VHS era, dubs and subs were sold separately, with subs being more expensive (about an extra $4-$5). This was the genesis of the "dub vs. sub" debate, which was rendered moot early in the DVD era since both tracks could be included at no extra cost.

Spoiler:

It's unknown how popular the TV specials were, but they were hot enough that SNK and Studio Comet invested in making the third instalment a theatrical animated film, complete with an orchestra. FATAL FURY: THE MOTION PICTURE hit Japanese theaters in 1994 and was dubbed and released by VIZ around 1995 (as it typically took at least a year for an anime to be translated, dubbed, and released into English). At 100 minutes it is the longest of the trilogy and the one which deviates from the games the most. As I stated, there were no more canonical Fatal Fury games to work with at the time, so Obari instead went with an original story featuring his own characters (including original villains). The stakes are risen with a globe trotting adventure, with a conflict which imperils the entire world against a far more over-the-top antagonist. It also plays up the tragedy angle from the prior specials and very much acts like a third chapter, progressing the cast further. For the most part, the theatrical animation by Studio Comet is exceptional. But the key words are, "for the most part." It becomes clear that most of their budget was saved for the final battle (which is very fair), and some scenes near the beginning and the start of the third act are shockingly poorly animated. This kind of thing just isn't easy for anyone who isn't Disney, TMS, or Warner Brothers. The musical score, already great for the TV specials, kicks things up another notch for this film. Some sequences will remind one of an INDIANA JONES film. The backgrounds are also beautiful and there's finally enough of a budget for more wardrobe changes for the characters, aside for Terry Bogard. He's worn that same red jacket so long, the sleeves have literally ground down. Virtually every surviving character from the prior specials return, and there is more time to squeeze in some game characters the prior specials had no (or little) time for.

Spoiler:

Each of the TV specials had a fairly memorable ending theme sung by Japanese singers. For the motion picture, VIZ went through the expense to translate and re-record the song as "Oh Angel" with English lyrics, sung by Canadian singer Warren Stanyer. Aside for this, most of the songs he's performed for productions have been for a slew of cheesy Christmas themed TV movies that Hallmark Channel orders annually (which are usually filmed in Canada despite almost all set in the midwestern U.S.). Can Toronto or Vancouver seriously stand in for places as diverse as New York City, Texas, Paris, or Utah, or is it just Hollywood people who think so?

At any rate, I will admit to the flaws of the FATAL FURY anime. It is material from the 90s and some of the animation is dated or inferior to modern stuff. The biggest flaw is that it rides atop the "women in fridges" trope and rockets it to the moon. There are only three major heroines in the entire series and two of them die to provide "man-pain" for the star (and the other is the foundational Fanservice Ninja-Girl). The plots are pretty simple and so is a bunch of the dialogue, and the villains. There are people who, as a matter of taste or principle, don't think much of anime based on fighting games, even though a lot of the tropes (i.e. named signature attacks, obvious villains, might makes right logic) are extremely common in "shounen" anime, or fiction in general. For some, FATAL FURY was always a second banana, at best, to STREET FIGHTER and not everyone likes the characters. It's far from the most improbable fighting game to get at least 3 instalments. Did you know VIRTUA FIGHTER got an anime TV series!? And yes, the motion picture has fan-service. I guess on the "Boob-O-Meter" where 0 is Disney, 1 is a DCAU direct to video, 5 is the average cyberpunk 1980s OAV, and 10 is GOLDENBOY (as in THIS CLOSE to hentai), I'd rank this one at about a 3 or 4. The scenes are very brief and rarely last longer than a few seconds. Mai's proportions do get out of whack in the movie, though. She even wears thongs twice. But it is nowhere near as long as Chun-Li's shower scene in STREET FIGHTER II: THE ANIMATED MOVIE (which gets edited and uncut in every version released in America; seriously, how hardcore a version it is depends on how much of Chun-Li's shower it includes).

That said, I see redeeming value to these beyond being a fan of the games or action flicks. Ultimately the key draw for me is the theme of tragedy which plays throughout. The series is never "grimdark" about it, and there are always comedic and triumphant sequences. But it does show the tragedy of a cycle of violence and that to the lead hero, the death of a love interest isn't just a subplot in one film. Losing Lily McGuire was a trauma not easily healed and sometimes trying to move on doesn't automatically lead to a "happily ever after." That said, it's been over 20 years since the last instalment and some fans on YouTube or elsewhere still lament that another wasn't made -- especially as by 1995, FATAL FURY 3: THE ROAD TO FINAL VICTORY gave Terry an "official" girlfriend in Blue Mary, who fights with sambo. But I am satisfied with the trilogy that exists. I always found more depth than a typical Street Fighter show which always ends with Ryu walking off into the sunset or touching fists with Ken.

For some reason VIZ teamed up with Pioneer/Geonon to release these on DVD and the movie was released in 1999, with the TV specials as a "Double Impact" disc in 2000; the film stayed in print longer. Disctotek Media released both on DVD around 2014 with blu-ray versions a few years later. They made the DVD covers actually resemble Neo-Geo cartridge boxes, which was pretty slick. For a dated reference, at the end of the credits in the VHS version of the film, viewers are told to play FATAL FURY SPECIAL for SNES and SEGA CD, whereas for the '99 DVD, it has been switched just to Fatal Fury games "on consoles and the arcades."

In Japanese, most if not all of the voice actors are the folks who voice the characters in the games; that's usually pretty common. In English, it was dubbed by the Canadian Ocean Group which means the cast is a who's who of very familiar voices from many anime and cartoon titles (especially INU YASHA and RANMA 1/2). Mark Hildreth is the star as Terry Bogard and he's voiced a ton of stuff since, including Marvel stuff such as X-MEN: EVOLUTION, WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN, and PLANET HULK. He's gained the most infamy, though, for being a member of the odd NXIVM cult based in Albany, NY that was eventually busted for money laundering as well as assaults and other crimes against women (including branding). Founder Keith Raniere as well as SMALLVILLE actress Alison Mack were arrested, and Hildreth not only dated fellow cult member Kristin Kreuk (also known from SMALLVILLE), he was the one who introduced her to the cult. Hildreth left and disavowed the cult...in 2021, about 3 years after the founders were arrested. Quite a fall from grace, indeed. The other big star is Jason Grey-Stanford as Joe Higashi, who's best known from MONK (or RONIN WARRIORS). Mai was the only character who was recast from one special to the next; she's voiced by Sarah Sawatsky in THE NEW BATTLE and the better known Lisa Ann Beley for the film. I have no idea why the switch was necessary, though Sawatsky did seem to play Mai a bit younger. Considering Beley usually voices powerful, regal heroines, Mai was actually a bit against type for her. Andy Bogard was voiced by Peter Wilds, whose best known role beyond this was Dingo in SONIC UNDERGROUND. Also against type was Matt Hill as Laocorn; he's known for playing surfer dude heroes and bumblers, so playing a villain is a bit rare for him. Lily McGuire was voiced by Willow Johnson, best known as Kikyo from INU YASHA; talk about being typecast as "an ex-girlfriend who won't die." The late French Tickner, who made a career of voicing eccentric old men in anime and cartoons, of course, was the voice of Jubei. Sulia was voiced by Myriam Sirois, who is best known as Akane Tendo from RANMA 1/2 (which VIZ dubbed for about 10 years from 1992-2002). Other regulars include Paul Dobson, Ward Perry, Robert O. Smith and Janyse Jaud.

Until I had enough money to afford series on VHS or DVD, which wouldn't come until the middle or end of high school, this was the longest "series" I had. Nostalgia goggles or not, it still has a fond place in my collection.

[Hielario]

Oh, the Fatal Fury movies, I think I read Kelly Turnbull mention a few times that those were a formative influence for her.

Today I found out it's been 21 years since Treasure Planet came out. I saw a video of the scene there the space tall ship takes off and, even if I didn't remember the computer graphics being as clashy as they were, I nearly cried in awe. I still don't understand what happened to animation in the 2000s when they had started so amazing.

Also, I don't actually care much about what most of the Latin Grammys people do, but I gotta admire how Rosalía and her producers keep throwing aesthetic curveballs at everybody. First she switches from the weird reinterpretation of the typical spanish that made her famous to latin/urban with y2k nostalgia outfits...and then, when everybody has gotten used to that, she's covering Rocío Jurado with a full cuadro flamenco (Personally don't care about the media narrative of her and her ex taking potshots at each other through their outfits and cover choices, though ).

[Datelessman]

Oh, the Fatal Fury movies, I think I read Kelly Turnbull mention a few times that those were a formative influence for her.

It's good to see or hear someone besides me talking about them. Since it came out in the 90s (and has been re-released on DVD in the 2000's and 2010's), virtually every online anime review website has either brushed it aside or usually reviewed it negatively (usually because "it's based on a B-list fighting game" or "it has too much Chi-combat"). Again, not saying it's better than COWBOY BEBOP, but not everything can be COWBOY BEBOP.

If anything, some of my tastes in anime have taught me that sometimes it's okay to like stuff that "they" (i.e. critics) don't like. Now that can sound odd considering I have written (barely) professional review articles about comics (and occasionally films and TV shows), but taste is highly subjective and individual, and should be! Like what you like, even if it's trash. Life is too short.

Today I found out it's been 21 years since Treasure Planet came out. I saw a video of the scene there the space tall ship takes off and, even if I didn't remember the computer graphics being as clashy as they were, I nearly cried in awe. I still don't understand what happened to animation in the 2000s when they had started so amazing.

Thanks for making me feel old, man. I saw "TREASURE PLANET" in theaters.

Jokes aside, I know exactly what you mean and I am thrilled and fascinated how a lot of people -- especially those 35 and under -- are suddenly finding new appreciation for some of those animated 2D films from the late 90s or very early 2000s which were kind of "the end of an era." And it isn't just Disney or Warner Brothers; Dreamworks had some gorgeous animated films at that time (like "THE PRINCE OF EGYPT", arguably the best version of the story of Moses). I'm hardly an insider but I'd say it happened for a few reasons clashing at once (as with most things).

The first was that technology with CGI and computer animation had progressed to the point where it became more viable to make more fully animated feature films (and even TV shows) that way. Studios had been tinkering with it for ages, and not just in the West. TMS' "GOLGO 13: THE PROFESSIONAL" in 1983 had an entire sequence involving helicopters and towers in the last act which looks very primitive now, but at the time was state of the art and a novelty. Just 3 years later, Disney was using computers to help animate all of those giant clock gears in the finale of "THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE" (one of the first ten films I distinctly remember seeing and enjoying as a child). By 1992, most of the major studios had stopped fully producing animated films using physical "paint, ink, and cells" anymore; Fox Studios' "FERN GULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST" was one of the last (if not THE last). So by the end of the 90s and into the very early 2000s there was this clash of techniques happening where CGI was on the rise and improving with every year. Studios had a lot of experience merging the two and maximizing the technology while still meshing in animation techniques mastered in the 1930s and 40s. By that point, many animation veterans had literal decades of experience to impart and capitalize on, especially out of the 1980s when there was a ton of experimentation (i.e. Don Bluth, ex-Disney employee, and his own studio). These movies sometimes took 3-4 years or more to complete, and the extra time was often to the benefit of quality.

The second is that, to a degree, audiences got a bit ungrateful. Traditional 2D animation had been lobbed into theaters by many studios for so long (over half a century) that many features seemed to become routine. It didn't help that some of them, frankly, were routine and often relied on stunt casting. 2004's "HOME ON THE RANGE" was kind of the peak of this, as a massively underperforming, poorly reviewed, and oddly conceptualized cow-movie touted on its stunt cast (namely, Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench and Jennifer Tilly). 2002's "EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS," a Sony/Adam Sandler vehicle, offered utterly beautiful animation for some very gross and atrocious stuff (like reindeer eating frozen crap or close ups of a midget's fuzzy testicles). Compared to the response and performance of "TOY STORY" from 1995 (and its sequel in 1999), and it became easy to justify, from a studio standpoint, that "audiences want the freshest, hippest, new fangled thing" and that was full CGI animation. It is possible that "the Disney Renaissance," and the competition from rival studios that it encouraged, burnt audiences out of 2D animation for feature films (at least in the U.S.).

And the third reason, which may be the true cause, was due to corporate greed and ineffectiveness. Some of the major animated "bombs" of the era weren't because the films were bad, but because the studio had no idea how to promote it, or released it during a bad time. WB has long lamented the fact that 1999's "THE IRON GIANT" bombed, but that was mostly due to two factors; the studios' neglectful method of promoting it, and the fact that their "QUEST FOR CAMELOT" a year before was so underwhelming. For the record, "THE IRON GIANT" also hit theaters the same month as "BIG DADDY," "AMERICAN PIE," DISNEY'S TARZAN," and a small independent movie called "STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE." And as for "TREASURE PLANET"? It was released in the last week of November, 2002. It was competing against "HARRY POTTER & THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS" (then it its 4th week), Disney's own "THE SANTA CLAUSE 2" (also in its 4th week) and United Artists' "DIE ANOTHER DAY" (the last Pierce Brosnan Bond film, in its 2nd week). With a budget of $140 million (in 2002 money), it was, and maybe still is, the most expensive 2D animated film to date, and Disney marketed it little better than a RESCUERS sequel.

Beyond poor promotions and bad timing, there was corporate greed. By the late 90s and early 2000s, traditional animation was dominated by unionized industry veterans who knew their worth. That is the mortal nemesis for every single bloated corporate empire that has ever existed in human history. In comparison, computer CGI animation was a brand new field with no veterans and "experts" who were still young, inexperienced, and sometimes learning as they went. It became easy to decide, on a corporate level, to ditch the old experts and their unions and capitalize on relative slave labor from the new generation. The public would be told that it was their choice, since a few movies bombed, and the public would believe it, because by and large the public always believes what the folks who own Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny tell them. And so that era of animation came to an end, and now we have incidents where the CGI/VFX animators behind the second SPIDER-VERSE or most of the MCU films are complaining they are massively overworked and underpaid -- the lament of literally every worker without strong unionization and fair wages since humanity ditched hunting and gathering. Disney, WB, Dreamworks, etc. are no longer willing to "wait" 3+ years for a movie; they want several churned out every year like a machine. And if the extended WGA/SAG strikes showed anything, it is that these studios would genuinely rather burn their entire empires to the ground than share even a grain of sand's worth of their wealth. Especially since one entire political party (and at times in some places, both) are entirely in their pocket. Is it any wonder why the tycoons are pushing AI!? Artists are the last class of workers they haven't mostly crushed or dominated with technology, even though most work for low wages (or have sporadic employment) anyway.

After all, the notion of outsourcing animation was or is still recent. Ever look at the credits and see how animated films and TV shows had mostly American-looking names in the animation credits (not just directors and storyboards, but actual animators) up until about the late 1970s or 1980s and then all of a sudden it reads like an Asian phone book? That was for the same reason; animation studios in Japan, Korea, or the Philippines are willing to work for less than American ones for similar reasons. It was in recent memory for some of us; Filmation's BRAVESTARR, their last TV series, boldly proclaimed "animated in the USA" in their credits from 1987-1988. The same concept of deregulation, encouragement of monopolies, and outsourcing jobs wasn't just happening with manufacturing; it happened in animation, too. So by the 2000s, especially with a Republican rich man's son in the White House, it was only a hop, skip and a jump from that to just ditching the "old school" entirely for the CGI kids fresh out of college.

So, anyway, that's my thesis as to how 2D animation went from an apex in the late 90s and early 2000s to today, where it is mostly used (or wasted) on an endless array of direct to video projects for DC superheroes or Scooby Doo (or "merely" the stuff of Netflix or toddler TV shows).

[Datelessman]

My latest entertainment joy will be a quickie -- an animated movie that I was a few trailers for that was a Paramount+ exclusive, but hit physical media last year. That is a movie which is hardly perfect but still fun for a lark, RUMBLE.

It is very loosely based on a Top Shelf graphic novel from 2013, "Monster On The Hill" from Rob Harrell, who is credited by the film. That said, the better description would be "loosely inspired," and I hope the comic guy got a nice payday. Aside for the name of the main town and the basic premise, nothing about the graphic novel made the screen. A part of me wonders if the premise for the movie came first, the legal department found this very similar comic, and one went, "just pay the dude some cash and credit him, or we might get sued," and that's what happened. Or it just went through a TON of rewrites in pre-production. Reel FX Creative Studios began working on this in 2015, with Paramount getting involved in 2018 and WWE Studios co-producing the thing. It was originally supposed to hit theaters in 2020, but then Covid-19 happened. The release date was kicked down a few times, with the studios deciding to release it digitally at the end of 2021 rather than wait until 2022 for a theatrical run. It very clearly was intended for a mainstream run, since there is a lot of "stunt casting" in the voice credits and many feel-good moments.

Anyway, the film is kind of like PACIFIC RIM meets pro-wrestling, with a pinch of DIGIMON.

Spoiler:

I found it predictable but still a solidly good time, at least for the ten bucks the DVD cost me. It stars the voices of Will Arnett, cast to type as Steve/Rayburn Jr., with Geraldine Viswanathan as Winnie, Terry Crews as Tentacular, Ben Schwartz as Jimothy, Susan Kelechi Watson (THIS IS US) as Winnie's mother, and Fred Melamed as the mayor. But as I said, there are TONS of stunt casting choices here that include two wrestlers (Roman Reigns and Becky Lynch), a boxer (Chris Eubank), a retired NBA star (Charles Barkley), a retired NFL player (Jamal Duff), a loudmouthed commentator (Stephen A. Smith), and some other former sitcom stars like Tony Danza (Siggy), Brian Baumgartner (THE OFFICE), Carlos Alazraqui (RENO 911, though in fairness he'd been a VA before RENO), Tony Shalhoub (MONK) as the diner owner and Michael Buffer as the "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE" ring MC. It's the kind of animated film where the budget for the cast may have been higher than for the animation. They all do a solid job, albeit mostly cast to type. The influence of WWE Studios is very apparent even beyond the wrestler voice cameos, but I don't think it does the film any harm. If anyone would know how wrestling fans or the industry work, it would be them. On the other hand, there is a bit of a glossy sheen put on the industry which seems self servicing. Yeah, I bet WWE only thinks the poor, underground wrestling arenas that play in church basements or abandoned building are the ****shows and a WRESTLEMANIA could never be staged badly or as predictably as a PBS special. Roman Reigns has been the Universal Champion longer than I've been alive. That's only a slight exaggeration.

So, yeah, if you don't set your expectations high and want a low stakes good time with wrestling monsters, give RUMBLE a whirl. It's no NACHO LIBRE, though. Now THAT is some classic wrestling movie action!

[Hielario]

Old? Well, mark me as a fellow geezer since I watched it in a theater too, 3/4 of which got overtaken by a clothing store, and with someone who I saw die of old age some years ago. 

 I agree with some of your points, especially the one about routine: even as a child, I started feeling every other Disney movie was following the same template, and I wasn't the only one.

Can't speak about marketing, though. As a child I wasn't very aware of it. Most of the time we just picked whatever was on theaters that week. 

So the Mobius name comes from the cartoon-turned-comic book? Well, that explains some things about Exterminatus Now...maybe I should try to get a compilation for that last one if the authors are still selling it.

Also: Chainsawman dubbed to castillian is nuts and i love it! The protagonist wouldn't sound nowhere near this wonderfully insane and profane in another language. Goddamn Crunchyroll and their confusing tricks with free content, I want to keep watching but how am I going to be satisfied by subs now??

[Datelessman]

Old? Well, mark me as a fellow geezer since I watched it in a theater too, 3/4 of which got overtaken by a clothing store, and with someone who I saw die of old age some years ago. 

 I agree with some of your points, especially the one about routine: even as a child, I started feeling every other Disney movie was following the same template, and I wasn't the only one.

Can't speak about marketing, though. As a child I wasn't very aware of it. Most of the time we just picked whatever was on theaters that week. 

So the Mobius name comes from the cartoon-turned-comic book? Well, that explains some things about Exterminatus Now...maybe I should try to get a compilation for that last one if the authors are still selling it.

Theaters are struggling and have for some time. I've lived in the same neighborhood since I was born and I've watched all the movie theaters close and fade away. My closest one is about 40 minutes away by bus (maybe 7-8 miles on foot; I have walked there once or twice) and they've cut their hours notably the last few years.

Technically, Mobius came from the "Sonic Bible," an internal document SEGA created in 1991 when they launched the franchise. I don't know if it was included in the handbook for the original SONIC THE HEDGEHOG game but it was offered to various Western licensed adaptations, specifically the DIC cartoons and various comics in America and Europe. Mark Millar (yes, THAT Mark Millar) famously got his start in comics writing the UK's Sonic comic for years (before becoming Grant Morrison's funny sidekick/co-writer in the mid to late 90s). That is also where the "Dr. Ivo Robotnik" name came from, although in the Bible it was his name before becoming "Eggman" whereas the Western stuff kept it (and the Saturday morning show renamed him "Julian Robotnik" for whatever reason. The writers at DIC never played any of the games of the cartoons they wrote for, so the Bible stuff was crucial. And clearly, Sega cared more about that stuff than Nintendo did in the 1980s (for proof, just look at CAPTAIN N: THE GAME MASTER).

I am not really an expert of Sonic continuity so I don't know if the modern games kept the Mobius planet name or ditched it. But, yeah, Sega did create the franchise very deliberately to compete with Super Mario and that meant establishing a world, and in their defence, it did work for a while.

[Hielario]

This is a masterpiece and i need to share it even if you won't get half the references https://youtu.be/fsxVo6WqI8w?si=Q6NEBayzh_joxNBG

[Datelessman]

This is a masterpiece and i need to share it even if you won't get half the references https://youtu.be/fsxVo6WqI8w?si=Q6NEBayzh_joxNBG

Well, I at least get the KNIGHT RIDER/KITT references. Ah, when a car with A.I. was science fiction. These days, cars with A.I. "suggest" the fastest way to the pharmacy is to take a right turn through a rando's house.

[Datelessman]

Most of my entertainment joy binges tend to be older cartoons, yet a few folks here seem to like older school anime (at least older school compared to the newest thing, as in older than CHAINSAW MAN). But what about a show that's both? I think I have found it, and certainly enjoyed binging this brief, 13 episode series which came and went from U.S. and Japanese broadcast syndication in 1984. I never saw it at the time, because at the time I would have been two years old and don't remember it. But I am talking about the fourth banana robot show of the time which has developed a cult following ever since. Mixing combination robots with, arguably, a rehash of DC's Metal Men, I am talking about the MIGHTY ORBOTS.

TMS Entertainment may be one of the most notable animation studios in Japan now, but they had humble beginnings. When the company was founded in 1946 (i.e. right after Japan's defeat after WWII), it was a textile company. They didn't venture into animation until 1964, nearly 20 years later (and technically only stopped being involved in textiles in 2003). Their first anime included Osamu Tezuka's BIG X, and Hayao Miyazaki got his start there (as well as MADHOUSE branching out from it). TMS had many series across the 60s and 70s, but LUPIN THE THIRD PART II was their most successful to close out the decade. By 1980, they were flying high and wanted to branch out beyond Japan into other markets. Thanks to regulation and the offshoring of animation, North America and Europe suddenly became golden markets. But, it wasn't easy. They united with DIC (originally a French industrial animation company) that had just hired an ex-Hanna-Barbera executive to make new franchises for them. Their first joint production in 1981 was going to be LUPIN THE EIGHTH, set in the far future. But, after investing in a pilot, the estate of Maurice LeBlanc (the original author of Arsene Lupin) threatened copyright lawsuits, so both TMS and DIC had to scrap it all at the 11th hour and start over. That second effort became INSPECTOR GADGET, which got a pilot in 1982 and a full series in 1983 (after MGM threatened to sue them for being too close to their Inspector Clouseau character, so Gadget lost his mustache from the pilot). TMS animated most of the episodes of INSPECTOR GADGET's debut season, and did other projects with DIC and other studios but in 1984, DIC decided to rerun Gadget for a year (and when they did produce a second season in 1985, it was with another, more home grown studio). Ironically, after causing TMS and DIC legal headaches over INSPECTOR GADGET, MGM came to TMS to unite for a co-production which became MIGHTY ORBOTS.

Unfortunately, 1984 was a terrible, awful, no good year to produce an American cartoon based around Japanese robots (or Japanese inspired robots). 1984 was the year TRANSFORMERS and GOBOTS debuted, as well as the year VOLTRON saw an English dub and aired alongside them. As if that wasn't bad enough, both HE-MAN & THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE and G.I. JOE were running their second seasons as definitive merchandising empires. There was a glut of product that was not kind to any budding franchise which didn't hit the ground running. And as if that wasn't enough, TONKA, the toy company behind GOBOTS, decided to curb stomp their newest rivals in their desperate attempt to endure competition with TRANSFORMERS and VOLTRON. Tonka sued the creators of MIGHTY ORBOTS claiming their franchise created "brand confusion" with GoBots. It was absurd, especially since GoBots were just Tonka's American versions of MACHINE ROBO from Japan (much as Transformers was Hasbro's American version of some Takara robot toys like Diaclone and Micro-Change). Corporate lawsuits are not always about merit, but harassing and/or draining attention and resources from a rival. So, that did in the MIGHTY ORBOTS virtually in the garage. And for what? GOBOTS got crushed by TRANSFORMERS and VOLTRON anyway.

The shame of it was what MIGHTY ORBOTS lacked in merchandising energy or breakout characters, it more than makes up for in execution and presentation. It was truly a creation of American and Japanese talents coordinating to make a project they thought would appeal to both audiences. MIGHTY ORBOTS was pitched by producer Fred Silverman, who ran Intermedia Entertainment at the time, alongside MGM/United Artists. TMS, for their part, brought in director Osamu Dezaki (ASTRO BOY, TOMORROW'S JOE), his brother Satoshi Dezaki on storyboards, Akio Sugino (GOLGO 13 and SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA) on designs, and Shingo Araki (DEVILMAN, CUTIE HONEY) on animation. The main theme (used for the transformation sequence) was written by Steve Rucker and Tom Chase, and sung by Warren Stanyer (yes, the same guy who would sing, "OH ANGEL" for VIZ's dub of FATAL FURY: THE MOTION PICTURE). However, the rest of the music for the series beyond the theme song was composed by Yuji Ohno, who's only been composing music for LUPIN THE THIRD for over 50 years. If you've ever watched a Lupin TV special, animated film, or episode, you've heard his tunes. In other words, this was TMS' A-Team, provided a big budget by a major Western company. And while most of the animation team was Japanese, the writing team were Americans. Veteran scribe Michael Reaves was the story editor for the series and wrote/co-wrote 4 episodes. Buzz Dixon and David Wise each wrote two episodes apiece, alongside other talent like Donald F. Glut and Marc Scott Zicree. The English voice cast are also a troupe of regulars from Hanna-Barbera cartoons, at least from the late to mid 70s.

MIGHTY ORBOTS is one of those classic 1980s cartoon that has an intro which is a full minute long so an announcer (Gary Owens) can breathlessly explain the premise. There were fewer commercials then, so animated episodes had to fill 22-23 minutes of time. Unlike a lot of bot-shows of the time, the series takes place in the 23rd Century with a mostly positive and optimistic world. Approximately 300 years into the future, Earth has become a part of the Unified Planets and acts as the main enforcement engine behind their Galactic Patrol. The cities are clean, sun-drenched, and technologically advanced, and aliens, humans, and robots operate freely and in harmony within them. The only routine source of trouble, aside for Captain Shrike and his gang of space-pirates, is SHADOW, an intergalactic cartel of evildoers. SHADOW is run from a planet-sized computer called the Shadow-Star by Umbra (voiced by Bill Martin doing a poor man's Dr. Claw impersonation), an evil artificial intelligence hellbent on conquering the universe.

Spoiler:

A handful of episodes were released on VHS and Betamax (yes, BETAMAX) in 1987; up to about episode 5-6 if a Google search is accurate. Turner Entertainment eventually purchased the MGM library, and Warner Brothers now owns all of it. Thus, MIGHTY ORBOTS is a "print on demand" DVD which can be easily ordered from Amazon or Warner's archive website, along with other cartoons like PIRATES OF DARK WATER, SWATCATS: THE RADICAL SQUADRON, and others.

Barry Gordon and Jennifer Darling would go on to co-star together a few years later on a little show called TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, (as Donatello and Irma, respectively) at least from 1988-1994. Bill Martin, also known as William E. Martin, would also eventually join TMNT as the final voice of the Shredder after James Avery left for the last three seasons (or 7 episodes across seasons 8 and 10). Gordon's made a career of voicing brainiac characters in cartoons since the 80s, but I always am fascinated by some of Darling's performances outside of TMNT. As Dia she's a perfectly stoic heroine, but that's nothing compared to Irma on TMNT. I don't know if it was the director (Susan Blu, who did group recordings for TMNT like Andrea Romano does on DC shows), or the character (Irma is the "homely" best friend to the female lead, not the lead herself), but Darling showed a ton more range as Irma. Maybe she just liked the character; kind of like Ayeka from TENCHI MUYO (who Darling voiced for quite a while during the 90s into 2005 in various projects).

So, if you're in the mood for an upbeat, brief, 1980s combination robot anime which is also an American cartoon, too, with jaw dropping animation, storyboards, and music, give it a whirl. It's been uploaded on YouTube but the DVD is pretty cheap, and usually will be better quality on a TV anyway. It is kind of a shame it didn't catch on, but nothing was catching TRANSFORMERS in terms of robot cartoons at the time. But at least via the magic of the internet and modern home video, the MIGHTY ORBOTS can reunite once again.

[Datelessman]

This is another binge, or rather, one I was doing on a slower basis over a longer period of time, to satisfy enough of my curiosity that I didn't overpay for a bootleg DVD (or an even rarer out of print one). Hopefully it won't be as long, but I always say that.

As the 1980s began, video games were just beginning to become part of pop culture and both writers and the studios they worked for were struggling to figure out whether this would be a fad to cash in on or something more fundamental being added to the lexicon. Even in 1983, most people only saw video games in arcades, which was when Ruby-Spears Productions (a studio founded by some ex-Hanna-Barbera men) created one of the first cartoons for American broadcast television based around licensed video game characters -- "SATURDAY SUPERCADE" for CBS. This saw the first animated appearances by Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Super Mario (voiced by Peter Cullen, of all people, as Donkey's nemesis), Frogger, Pitfall Harry, Kangaroo, Space Ace, and Q*Bert. But when the NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM (NES) hit the U.S. market in the mid 1980s, it proved video games were here to stay. Animated episodes focused or themed around them became as common within 1980s cartoons as "the mind control plot" or "the Fantastic Voyage plot," with many writers clearly treating them as some mysterious thing they barely understood beyond the symbols and sound effects. SATURDAY SUPERCADE was successful enough to run 2 seasons, so in 1989, DIC (at the time famous for INSPECTOR GADGET, HEATHCLIFF & THE CADILLIAC CATS, and THE LITTLES) decided to leap into the game with the industry's biggest star. That became "THE SUPER MARIO BROS. SUPER SHOW," which only ran one season of 65 episodes but quickly entered the zeitgeist for its music and live action segments.

But neither Nintendo nor DIC were done, and at the same time they were producing "TSMBSS," they created the cartoon that I binged which has been described as everything from a nostalgic holy grail to the pinnacle of 1980s cartoons misunderstanding a subject. Grab your zapper and make a controller into a belt buckle, because I am talking about "CAPTAIN N: THE GAME MASTER." It debuted on ABC in 1989 (unlike "TSMBSS," which was broadcast syndication and could air anywhere) and ran for three seasons until 1991. It was promoted via Nintendo's then-official magazine, NINTENDO POWER. In fact, the premise for the show was virtually stolen from Randy Studdard, who was an editor of the magazine at the time. He wrote a story for the magazine that involved a teenage "Captain Nintendo" battling Mother Brain (the villainess from METROID) which involved other licensed characters. Nintendo changed just enough about the concept that they couldn't (easily) be sued, and they never credited nor compensated Studdard for his idea once the cartoon came out. It likely would have been considered "work for hire" much as with comic book creators working for Marvel or DC. I didn't have a subscription to NINTENDO POWER as a kid, so I only read it sporadically via copies bought from newsstands, or reading a copy one of my friends had. I learned about the show's debut from the magazine, but only rarely saw it. For whatever reason, my local ABC station aired it very early Saturday mornings; like before eight a.m. Back in the day, "Saturday morning cartoons" ran from approximately six a.m. to noon, but the earlier hours were usually dedicated to either reruns of older shows or shows the network probably didn't feel were going to stick around. Later in the morning was "prime time," which was why "hit" shows like Ninja Turtles or X-Men aired late in the morning. Since I got up at 6:30 a.m. five days a week for school, I rarely woke up as early as CAPTAIN N was on, so I rarely caught episodes (or if I did, it was the last half or third of an episode). I believe ABC shifted the show to a later timeslot for its second and third seasons, but by then, CBS owned at least an hour of my life every week once they acquired "TMNT" and made it the center-piece of their Saturday morning schedule from 1990-1993 (I stopped avidly watching after that, even though Turtles ran on CBS until '96).

Spoiler:

When the "SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE" debuted this spring, I loved it and have since watched it an extra 2-3 times since buying it on DVD. At the time I wondered if Nintendo wanted to start their own cinematic universe, possibly as a recreation of Captain N. Well, having rewatched the show with clearer eyes (rather than the bleary eyes of a child), I hope they just stick to doing a sequel. CAPTAIN N has its place in history and I know some people (like Bob Chipman/"Moviebob") love it, but I don't see much to it behind the nostalgia goggles. It was shrewd of Nintendo to capitalize on their position at the time to use animation to sell wares to kids, on top of the magazine they already had (and the film they all but produced). I could imagine a recreation of Captain N being better, by virtue of it having a low bar to surpass, but I imagine this time around the lead wouldn't be a white dude from California (and in all probability would be a girl of color), and the Internet would break in half over it. It remains mind boggling that despite being paired alongside a Mario cartoon for most of its run, neither Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool or King Koopa ever appeared on CAPTAIN N. Why? Were Nintendo and DIC suddenly worried about being TOO shameless with promotion and advertising?

There was a comic book version of CAPTAIN N, licensed at the time to Valiant Comics, as part of a line of Nintendo licensed comics they were publishing. That version was a bit different, since they couldn't use any third party characters that Nintendo didn't own completely. As such, the N-Team is just Kevin, Lana, Duke, and Kid Icarus. Samus Aran (the actual heroine from METROID) replaces Simon and Megaman, and acts as the third point in a love triangle between Kevin and Lana. Also, Little Mac (the hero from PUNCH OUT) also appears, which makes sense since King Hippo is HIS enemy. It was solicited for six issues, but only published five. So far the only publishers who had any luck with video game licenses historically have been Archie Comics (Sonic and briefly Megaman), UDON Studios (who are essentially an arm of Capcom now), and since 2016, IDW Publishing (Sonic, again, though they just did a crossover between the Ninja Turtles and Street Fighter).

People give a lot of grief to many video game cartoons of the 90s, and in fairness, many of them were terrible or not accurate. But CAPTAIN N: THE GAME MASTER often gets a pass because it predated many of them. I'd argue it set the trends; it proved a cartoon about video games could last for 3 seasons on a major network despite barely being accurate to the source material, and that probably inspired others not to care enough either. But without Levi Stubbs to voice the villain (he tragically died in 2008, after suffering a near career ending stroke in 2000), that rarely works.

[Datelessman]

My last DVD binge of 2023 also continued along the theme of robots and video game characters. It's a show which debuted as I was in junior high and, aside for being bullied, was also "discovering" anime and mostly writing off many shows aside for Batman and X-Men that weren't anime. It would also turn out to be the penultimate series produced by Ruby-Spears, which from 1977-1996 was seen as a competitor to Hanna-Barbera (before H-B was bought out by Ted Turner, which is now part of Warner Brothers). I am talking about the animated series whose theme song is officially reentering your head now: the 1994 MEGA MAN series.

While cartoons based on video games were flourishing in the mid to late 1980s, they seemed to hit an apex during the 90s which hasn't really been matched since (even as video games have become more mainstream). In fact, one of the first animated series featuring licensed video game characters -- "SATURDAY SUPERCADE" -- was a Ruby-Spears produced show that ran on CBS from 1983-1985. DIC then got in on that action, and was still thriving off of it in the 90s. After all, DIC was still airing new CAPTAIN N and MARIO-themed episodes until 1991, and then kept both in syndication in some form or another until 1993-1994. And in '93, we got two SONIC THE HEDGEHOG cartoons, along with a "DOUBLE DRAGON" cartoon from them. All that was doing Nintendo and Sega plenty of favors, and Capcom eventually wanted to horn in on that action. So by '94, they decided to lead with their blue bomber with the studio that, arguably, started it all.

Their first effort was actually for a project called "MEGA MAN: WISH UPON A STAR," a three episode OAV series which aired on Japanese TV from 1993-1995. Ruby-Spears worked on the second one with designs which closely resembled the games, but with a per-episode budget of approximately $300,000. That was a lot at the time, so when it came to creating a show for U.S. audiences, trimming that cost was one goal. Capcom illustrator Keiji Inafune had created some modified Megaman (known in Japan as ROCKMAN) designs in his spare time, and those were chosen for the U.S. series. For me, I imagine part of the reason was that Ruby-Spears didn't want Megaman (or his sister, Roll) to look like kids. I mean, he's Mega-MAN, right? The series was voiced by Canada's Ocean Group, which was a shift for Ruby-Spears since before 1991, the studio insisted on only utilizing American voice talent. The first season of 13 episodes hit broadcast syndication in 1994, and at one point was the top rated weekday children's cartoon for the period (an amazing feat considering BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES was still airing on weekdays at that time). So, MEGA MAN got a second season which was slightly longer at 14 episodes, that aired from 1995-1996 (albeit just barely; the final episode aired in January '96).

The landscape for children's cartoons changed in 1992 (which I attribute to the aforementioned B:TAS as well as X-MEN, both FoxKids shows at the time), and studios were scrambling to adapt to that. By '94, for example, Disney's answer was "GARGOYLES." Hanna-Barbera's answer was "SWATCATS: THE RADICAL SQUADRON" and "PIRATES OF DARK WATER." In contrast, Ruby-Spears proved unable to adapt, and this show (along with their last, "SKYSURFER STRIKE FORCE"), still seemed very much like 1980s shows. It was, as Jon Taffer from "BAR RESCUE" might say, "beneath the market." While most animated shows of the time still saw their intros as mini-commercials for the show, Ruby-Spears still followed the 1980s formula of literally sinking their ENTIRE budget, musical, and storyboarding efforts into that intro, in the idea that it would "hook" kids in and they wouldn't mind the rest of the show. As such, 1994's MEGA MAN is the POSTER CHILD for a cartoon which absolutely, in no way, can live up to its intro. Just look at this:

I mean the intro gets the premise right, and it's WAY more accurate than CAPTAIN N did (which, remember, was still airing in syndication in some markets). Mega Man is blue, fighting Dr. Wily's robots, using their powers against them, and the designs mostly look on point. If the rest of the show was like this, furry fetishists may have gotten distracted from SONIC at the time.

Spoiler:

Being an Ocean Group dub, it's voiced by some familiar folks. Mega Man and Rush are voiced by Ian James Corlett, Dr. Light is voiced by Jim Brynes, Roll is voiced by Robyn Ross, Scott McNeil voices Eddie, Dr. Wily and Proto-Man, Gary Chalk voices Gutsman, and Terry Klassen voices Cut Man (like Peter Lorre). All of the male voice actors also take turns voicing all of the guest robot masters and various other roles. For some extra shamelessness, by season two from 1995-1996, the show decided to try selling a soundtrack CD (and audio-cassette) for extra merchandise since the toys probably weren't selling to well. This meant hiring some D-list back up bands to produce songs for it, which all play during the end credits of the second season. All range from "forgettable" to "dull," including the obligatory rap song. For extra trivia, Ocean Group was also dubbing DRAGON BALL Z for Pioneer/Geonon at this time, and they'd made it from the initial Raditz saga to just about the beginning or end of Perfect Cell, back when DBZ was airing in local syndication. Since they didn't have much of a music budget, they reused music and scores from MEGA MAN for some of their DBZ episodes. The MEGA MAN instrumental, in particular, plays during their dubs of the fights against Android 19. In the early 90s, Streamline dubbed two of the DRAGON BALL films and Pioneer was dubbing DBZ. FUNimation took over in the late 90s (around 1997-1998-ish) and they had Cartoon Network lined up as a station (via their Toonami block). They voiced the rest of DBZ and then went back and redubbed the whole show, with new music to boot. Ian James Corlett was the first "American" voice for adult Goku, with Sean Schemmel being asked to imitate that initially before coming into his own in the role after a decade or two since.

So, 1994 MEGA MAN. Definitely a novelty good for that intro and memes, and not much else. It's more faithful to the game than CAPTAIN N's version of Mega Man was, by far. Mega Man got some anime since this show, like MEGAMAN: NT WARRIOR, that aired elsewhere. The last Western made specifically for American audiences was 2018's MEGA MAN: FULLY CHARGED, and that one was even less accurate to the games. Then again, Mega Man, out of all of Capcom's franchises, has flexed and warped the most to (shamelessly) ape whatever was hot at the time, kind of like the character himself gaining the abilities of adversaries. It seemed a lot of studios and shows didn't know what to make of the landscape after 1992, and Ruby-Spears was definitely a casualty of this. While Sony released a few episodes on VHS in 1995, ADV released the series on DVD in 2003, and would have re-released it in 2009 had they not gone out of business (partially reforming as SENTAI FILMWORKS). Discotek Media re-released it on DVD in 2014, with box art which deliberately plays up the memes (like for their STREET FIGHTER cartoon), and is well done. Even the discs are painted like NES cartridges and the box like an old game box. The company has switched to blu-rays and even has the budget to produce some dubs (mostly of LUPIN THE THIRD material), but they've gotten less creative with box/disc art over the last half decade and it's a shame. Even the menu screen is like MEGA MAN 2.

My first binge for 2024 will be another 80s anime.

[Datelessman]

Time for a drastic tone shift in my latest DVD binge, and a return to a genre that some folks around here seem to like: late 1980s era "hardcore" anime that some right-leaning trolls have dubbed "manime" in various YouTube comments or Reddit threads. Now for disclosure, I did wind up buying, renting, or watching many of those titles at the time, but I had valid reasons. During the 90s, tons of them were available as mainstream retail purchases. Plus, during the 90s, I was an actual teenager, and sought that kind of stuff out. Nowadays my tastes have changed, but sometimes I do have a taste for "darker" material.

This one particular series also allowed me to close an unresolved chapter in my anime watching life. After buying and enjoying my first "real" anime around 1994-1995 (which was an edited version of the STREET FIGHTER II: THE ANIMATED MOTION PICTURE), I started craving the stuff in a big way. I'd always loved cartoons, but by the time I was 12-13 I was outgrowing the "kiddie" stuff like singing animals or bloodless combat. Anime offered cartoons that cursed or had blood, and I was all for that. There was little to no Internet at that time, and unless you subscribed to certain magazines, you had no idea what was out or what was "good," beyond for certain titles which everyone knew about (such as DBZ, SAILOR MOON, and AKIRA). My first anime VHS tapes were purchased at local retail spots like BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO or NOBODY BEATS THE WIZ, a less local retailer like SUNCOAST VIDEO, and even some "comic/card shows" held weekly or bi-weekly at a local church's auditorium for years. I still remember the first 10-20 anime tapes I ever purchased, and while the bulk of them were based on video games and others were classics like NINJA SCROLL, there was one which was the start of an OAV series which, until this week I never completed. I am talking about the anime version of one of the most classic "adult mangas" of the 1980s, and a series which used to be somewhat known but has slinked into the realm of obscurity. I am talking about CRYING FREEMAN.

CRYING FREEMAN is an example of what is called "Seinen manga," which are Japanese comics specifically intended for adult men (aged 18-40). This is different than the common term, "shonen manga," which is intended for tween to teenage boys (aged 10-17) or "shojo manga" (aimed at girls aged 10-17). In fact, the very first weekly manga anthology magazine published in Japan was WEEKLY MANGA TIMES, which began in 1956 and was actually aimed at MIDDLE AGED MEN, so it had a lot of racy and risky stuff. About 11 years later came WEEKLY MANGA ACTION, which was aimed at adult men, though younger than middle age, and it birthed stuff like LUPIN THE THIRD, LONE WOLF AND CUB, and CRAYON SHIN-CHAN. BIG COMIC came in 1968 and is famous for being the home of GOLGO 13, which is actually one of my favorite examples of this kind of stuff besides LUPIN THE THIRD (which was softened considerably for TV and animated films).

CRYING FREEMAN was written by Kazuo Koike and drawn by Ryoichi Ikegami for BIG COMIC SPIRITS from 1986-1988, resulting in 9 chapters or volumes. Koike is best known for LONE WOLF AND CUB, but has also written many other "mature" style mangas, including one mentioned above, MAD BULL 34. Ikegami has frequently collaborated with Koike for stuff like I UEO BOY and WOUNDED MAN, and had the pleasure of drawing one of the first three manga to be fully translated and officially released in the U.S., MAI THE PSYCHIC GIRL (which was published by Viz and Eclipse Comics as a comic book in 1987). For the record, the other two were AREA 88 and THE LEGEND OF KUMAI. The CRYING FREEMAN manga was released by VIZ as a comic book, then as collections, in the 90s. Dark Horse Comics reprinted it as a 5 volume "perfect collection" from 2006-2007. The anime was produced and released by TOEI as 6 OAV episodes, 50 minutes apiece, from 1988-1994 in Japan. In the U.S., it was dubbed and released by Streamline Pictures (one of the founding anime dubbing/distribution companies from the late 80s) from 1994-1995, where they covered the first 5 episodes. For unknown reasons, while there were plans for Streamline to follow suit with the final episode in 1996, it never happened; perhaps because by then the company was losing money from more competition (they stopped releasing new material after 1997 and shut down completely by 2000). A.D. VISION (ADV) got the rights to the CRYING FREEMAN anime in 2003 and released all 6 episodes in 3 DVD volumes from 2003-2004, before eventually condensing them into one "perfect" collection. They even went thru the expense of not only dubbing that final episode, but having the two starring voice actors from Streamline's dub team reprise their roles for it after about 8-9 years, which had to be a notable expense of effort (since ADV dubbed in Texas and Streamline recorded in L.A.). ADV folded in 2009 and Discotek Media re-released it on DVD in 2011, and on blu-ray last year.

Now, I haven't read the manga (I actually read very little actual manga), but obviously CRYING FREEMAN is a 1980s "mature adult tale" at its finest with tons of sex, nudity, and violence. The anime, however, has a deservedly infamous reputation for condensing it into JUST the sex, nudity, and violence with little if any of the nuance of the manga. This actually isn't rare in anime adaptations; what, you thought only American comics and/or books got cartoons or films that weren't accurate? LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND was a big hit foundational hentai in the late 80s and a darn lot of OAV's added or focused on that kind of stuff for sales, as was noted above in the DOOMED MEGALOPOLIS anime. As a teen I glossed over this stuff, but watching this now it is so insatiable that it almost becomes self-parody. The CRYING FREEMAN anime seriously made me question where the line was between "fan-service" and "hentai." Supposedly, that line is "visible and detailed genitalia." Hentai will have penises and vaginas; non-hentai won't. But should it be this simple? There are dozens of full on sex scenes (and one rape scene) in these episodes, in full pumping and moaning glory (along with some female masturbation). But it isn't hentai because any genitals south of the belly button aren't animated or "shadowed out?" Characters, including the star, will look for any excuse, or no excuse, to shred their clothing, even in full battle. I'll at least say the anime is consistent; not only does the male star appear naked or almost naked for most of the first 5 episodes, but virtually every named adult female character does, regardless of her size, shape, or age. Yes, even heroines who are 99 years old or hulking "full figured" specimens. I am not making this up. If you are an adult woman in CRYING FREEMAN, whether you are the size of a model, a professional wrestler, or look like Andre the Giant in drag, you WILL be naked, a lot. It actually made it embarrassing for me to watch, even alone in my room. I felt like I was on some watchlist just for buying it. Amazon just added my account to the "freako pervert" list.

Spoiler:

According to many anime review websites, CRYING FREEMAN is the worst thing ever; the absolute bottom of the barrel, below even stuff no one has ever heard of like RED HAWK or DOG SOLDIER: SHADOWS OF THE PAST. While there is a lot to criticize here, I'd say that is a bit unfair. When the animation is on point it looks good, and the music is nice. And there are some memorable angles to the plot about an unwilling assassin finding love and having to deal with weird crime rivals. It is a classic, even if an unfaithful adaptation, and has a place in anime history. Streamline Pictures often placed a "DEFINITELY NOT FOR KIDS" sticker on their tapes for many of their titles, like AKIRA and this, and that helped entice teenagers like me to it. I actually am in the mood for some of the pulpy dark anime sometimes, though GOLGO 13 remains the peak of that for me, and even that has tons of exploitative stuff.

That said, CRYING FREEMAN's endlessly insatiable lust for nudity and sex scenes at the most implausible and random of times is its biggest problem. Even if I was a horny pervert looking for fuel, characters strip so often that it becomes an unintentional self-parody. I admire that they're at least consistent with it with Mother Tiger and Baiyashan, but it's still gross (unless "BBW's" are your fetish). I am not a prude, but anyone who thinks this is not hentai just because lower genitals are never shown or animated has a very rigid view of that definition. Though most of the sex scenes are consensual, they are still a bit absurd and always drone on way too long. If you're looking for an erotic and violent crime thriller anime that doesn't have demons or tentacles, though, this is the grandfather of them. And unlike a lot of "mature" anime, it at least doesn't act as if women over (or pushing) 30 are ancient and can't still be sexy.

Steve Bulen voices Freeman in English and he puts in his usually solid performance as a lead hero here, even if he often says some chilling or disturbing stuff. He has a unique voice for a "lead hero actor" and it's memorable. Edie Mirman, who may have been the first U.S. voice of Fujiko Mine in any LUPIN anime, voices Emu here and like Bulen, is typecast a bit as a formerly sheltered heroine who gets more wild once the sheets are off (she voiced quite a few characters like that in anime). Barbara Goodson, best known as the original voice of Rita Repulsa on POWER RANGERS, voices Baiyashan, in all her screaming, crying, and whining glory. That is the crazy thing about Streamline; they were based in L.A. and got some pretty mainstream voice actors to voice some pretty hardcore and disturbing anime (i.e. Cam Clarke in DOOMED MEGALOPOLIS). One of the commentaries of DRAWN TOGETHER had someone claim that many voice actors and actresses best known for light, kiddie fare are pretty saucy once the mics are off and sometimes they seek out some more "adult" stuff if they get half the chance, basically to be paid to swear sometimes (or showcase some range). This explains Diane Michelle, best known from a lot of Disney cartoons (including the voice of Daisy Duck for quite a few projects in the 80s and 90s) voicing both Kitche and Wonshaku, and being paid to moan and groan for a non-hentai production. Wendee Lee, one of the founding ladies of anime dubs (including DIRTY PAIR and OUTLAW STAR) voices Nina Heaven.

On the one hand, I was glad to finally see the rest of CRYING FREEMAN after at least 25 years of wondering and closing a chapter from the foundation of my anime hobby. On the other, despite many cool action sequences, the endless dedication to unlimited nudity and sex made me numb to all of it until it became eyeroll worthy. Frank Miller would think it's too much, and he's the guy who probably wanted to trademark the word "whore" considering how often he uses the word in SIN CITY and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. If you're tired of kiddie stuff and, I don't know, want some writhing hentai with enough plausible deniability to not admit to it, give it a whirl. It does prove that two lonely older virgins can find each other and have scores of wild, kinky adventures even after such a late start. I imagine the manga is much better, because it has to be; it has the time to focus on stuff besides the bluntest details. Maybe that was why they were released over a period of six years; they get repetitive if binged, but one episode a year might be more satisfying. The art on the VHS covers was usually great, and Discotek at least restored the original titles for the menu (though offer no English credits in the DVD version).

I can say that while I enjoyed it more than a lot of the critics and can easily think of worse and less redeemable anime, I'm hardly in love with it, either. It's another example of the kinds of material I have long since outgrown. And sometimes, it's good to know you've matured and changed.

[Enail]

Dungeon Meshi's anime is out! The characters feel a little off (except Senshi, who is perfect), but it's got the same vibe and is still really fun to watch! I miss a little bit the humour of the more detailed way they go into the food in the manga, but the anime does at least make it seem more delicious, so it's a tradeoff at least.

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