Real Darkplace energy to these.
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I recently finished watching the anime series Zillion. It’s… probably as good as you could expect from a show designed to sell Sega laser tag guns.
Most of the plots are basic as hell and boil down to “every problem can be solved with guns”. I think this show was meant to be for kids, but it’s surprisingly violent with people getting vaporised in explosions all the time.
The attitude towards women in this is about as advanced as the plot. Main dude JJ’s primary character trait is being a huge perv, always getting into trouble for groping or ogling his female coworkers. The female member of the team, Apple, is shown to be probably the most skilled in training scenes, but in the field she’s mostly just there to cheer and flirt at the boys, scream when in danger or get emotional etc.
At one point the Zillion guns get redesigned and she remarks “You were thoughtful enough to make them easier for a lady to handle”. The end of the series is JJ and Champ getting into an argument about how big her boobs are and who got to touch them.
Opa Opa is in this, and the one time he gets a starring role he proves himself to be a huge liabilty, even getting Apple shot through the stomach. I liked when he put on his serious eyebrows though. His inclusion, plus the character, mecha and background designs just made me want to see an 80s Fantasy Zone or Phantasy Star anime instead.
I also watched the OVA sequel, Burning Night, which is a completely different thing. It’s basically Streets of Fire in a post apocalyptic setting that vaguely reminded me of maybe Angel’s Egg. I kinda think it would have been more cool to see this as a series. On the downside, Apple gets reduced to being just a damsel in distress.
The best part of the OVA is probably how antagonist Baron Ricks gets redesigned from being a super sentai alien villain, to looking like a cool dude 80s rockstar:
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Pretty sure that was his name originally. They either changed it for the cartoon or maybe in general later? Can’t be assed to dig out my copy of Spawn #6(IIRC) where he debuted though.
I found Zillion: Burning Night very enjoyable after feeling more than a little cold on the tv series (I don’t have much fondness for sega references and that’s about all it had going for it imo)
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Indeed! His name in the comic is Overt-Kill and Overkill is merely a nickname used in his first panel and never again.
Yeah the ova definitely felt like more of a passion project for the creators whereas the series obviously has a whiff of legal obligation
White Nuts was also the name of their crack team in the series and it’s equally silly there.
Opa opa flying upside down to serve drinks was a highlight of the ova as well
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the new adventure special was really lovely. really helped to flesh out marcy and bonnie’s relationship in a way that i didn’t know i wanted and that 30 seconds of adult finn was pretty funny
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gorgeous
and now spawn so turn off your lights
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finished part 3 of Kipo. The show is good, I think they nailed the landing. Still feel like it was underrated on this forum and elsewhere. It manages to be both funny and heartwarming in a way that usually really irritates me with kids shows. It also is not afraid to show its token gay characters kissing and I appreciate that, especially for a kids show. On a less moralizing note I also really enjoyed that the “5 years later” sequence at the end shows them all as awkward late adolescents not like fully realized adults.
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I did not expect a running poop-joke in Golden Kamuy, nor, really, its comedic sensibilities in general.
Got stoned and watched the original Dragon Ball, and boy that was not what I expected! I thought it was going to be shonen action anime, but it was actually some kind of goofy Japanese response to Looney Tunes. Also the series opens with Goku learning about and becoming obsessed with the concept of sexual dimorphism, and every time he sees a woman he slaps her crotch.
Bulma seems fun…?
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A talking turtle tried to convince Goku not to eat him by claiming that his flesh was tough and poisonous, prompting Goku to reveal that this had been his assumption all along, and perhaps the only reason why he didn’t immediately slaughter and consume this sentient being he’d been having polite conversation with for the past 20 minutes.
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you should check out Dr. Slump, Toriyama’s previous series, if you want more weird slapstick comedy
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Oh no
38 year anniversary for this episode tomorrow
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Toriyama is one of the great cartoonists and a master of comedy and it’s a shame so much of his career was wasted on dumb fight comics
I mean I’m sure the billions of yen coins were great but Dr Slump is a masterpiece and Dragon Ball up until the first fighting tournament is really fuckin’ funny and I’ll never let you cancel Master Roshi IT’LL NEVER HAPPEN
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