finally some REAL y2k throwback
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Devil May Bebop
As far as I remember, despite having two sound tracks recorded in Brasil, using Brasilian musicians, no less, it never got a Portuguese dub in either Brasil or Portugal. So the only people in Brasil, Portugal, Angola, etc. being aware of the show are people that are already fairly deep in the fansub circle and most likely don’t bother with their anime being dubbed on TV as adults. I enjoyed Bebop, Champloo, Michiko & Hatchin, Ergo Proxy, and Gangsta. as far as Manglobe is concerned, the last one had Tsutchie (previously from Champloo) do the music and it is the last thing the studio animated. It feels like a successor to Michiko & Hatchin despite being a manga adaptation for a manga that feels more like reading Black Lagoon in the mediterranean. I revisited Michiko & Hatchin because I have been suicidal as fuck, and I can look at the show to remind myself, “Well, at least this was not my childhood growing up so close to Brasil,” and it has better music than grim dark edgy favela stories like City of God (and City of Men). One of the biggest realisations as an adult is not being to escape the shadow of being Latin American for better or for worse. I spent all my teenage years trying to hide it, because I was bullied a lot for it in middle school and high school, it gave me a pavlovian response to just avoiding anything in Portuguese and Spanish for a good 12 years or so to avoid being reminded where I had to come from. It did not help my abuser was a relative, so moving away from my country gave me an opportunity to stop thinking and being around a man who I enable long lasting abuse from because my self esteem, body image, and gender identity was pish as early as before puberty. A lot of people had asked me if Michiko & Hatchin covers Brasil accurately, and other than real dumb shit like the bullfight scene, the violence in Brasil is legendary, we got firearm homicide stats as bad as what we can see in the USA, Mexico, Haiti, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, etc. If anything, it is easier to swallow the violence in Michiko & Hatchin due to its stylisation. But it is harder to grow complacent of the violence in movies like City of God where it is all realism.
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Even though the trailers for Common Side Effects look different from this it doesn’t quite look different enough
huh, i feel like literally the only similarity common side effects has to these is like black dot as pupil eyes?
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EL UNIVERSO YA ESTÁ PROTEGIDO
POR EL PODER DE GRAYSKULL
CON SECRETOS PODERES
DESTELLA UN CASTILLO
HE-MAN LUCHARÁ HASTA EL FINAL
I dare you to find any Spanish speaking person born before the '90s that doesn’t recognise these lyrics. Even my parents know He-Man. I just barely missed out the window to own He-Man toys, because by the time I was old enough to have my own toys, it was cheaper to get me a G.I. Joe or a Ninja Turtle.
The song lives on stage. This is the same Chilean guy that sang those lyrics back in the '80s, doing it on stage decades later.
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found out this week that there’s a whole fanmade version of toonami out there. been watching that and using it as an excuse to rewatch a bunch of old anime i like. never been a better time to watch inuyasha and cowboy bebop again.
have to link it because i can’t embed internet archive videos on here probably
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you can! i’ve posted links to the internet archive, and the video just embedded on its own
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common side effects is incredibly well made and the dea agents are some of the best characters of the year although having constantly dealt with people who are obsessed with every kind of snake oil and random internet quackery, the very premise is kind of personally annoying to me
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some animes i (re)watched.
Ai Monogatari
came for the tomomi mochizuki segments nd ended up liking them the most. “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” is lean and ironic, probably my fav of the set altho “uragirimono no machikado” features an unnatural gimmicky side to mochizuki as a storyboarder and director that i think is underrated (and is most prominent in Seraphim Call)
i found the bulky detailed character designs in “tomadou pelican” nd something about its animation that my eyes arent trained enough to pin down (too smooth? slipping btwn poses with even timing?) a little offputting the first time but on rewatch im ok with it. theres a good sense of volume to characters.
https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/2334f7843c1fdaa8662bdd87ea8e1723.mp4
apparently masaaki yuasa did key animation on “yoru o buttobase”? that ones good too
Download: Devil's Circuit
i like this cut
https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/cdb5215183cf844ab832afce5af90056.mp4
also this weird bit (warning: horny)
https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/158034a03ff164b81038e03231296843.mp4
Colorful (1999)
as a sexual harrassment ecchi comedy this was predictably grating - contains the requisite transphobic/homophobic crossdresser moment etc, etc. watched it because had storyboards and series direction by ryutaro nakamura nd in particular sound design by koji kasamatsu in the vein of his work on boogiepop phantom, ghost hound, lain… occasionally feels like some kind of mk ultra thing with a few amusing narrative conceits but too annoying nd unfunny for me to continue with
Bobby's Girl
finally watched this in full. by hirata’s own admission its an ostentatious joint. not sure if i liked it all that much altho the background animation in the final motorcycle ride is as good as everyone says.
The Little Twins
i.e. the english dub episodes i could find online. i liked this one more, its nice. does a beautiful thing of combining its storybook qualities (e.g. india ink) nd hirata’s visually poetic streak with a commitment to naturalism, particularly in the animation of animals. e.g. one of the twins starts visiting a flying squirrel nd eventually gets it to let him ride on its back, but whenever its on screen it just acts like a regular squirrel, nd how they communicate is left out. when they do fly the background disappears into abstract shapes. idk not explaining very well, i prefer this to something ostentatious like bobby’s girl. the visual wham shots every ep feel more elusive and wondrous.
enjoy more awe-inspiring naturalism from an episode that is NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!!
https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/9a4478401b64531ef97d72c61fbd74f2.mp4
edit: just kidding its here 小さな双子 OVA エピソード 7 The little twins Japan dub : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
all of the episode plotlines are wistful and not afaict ruined by the dub. the bgm is also new and it is decent if unfittingly telegraphed at times. this is probably my cue to give A Little Love Story a proper rewatch. and bobbys girl.
Dear Brother
rewatched some. now that i have a micron of visual literacy i enjoyed the storyboarding more. its dense and convincing. for some reason i shy away from media like this like i assume its pleasures are too simple for me, or whatever.
Den-noh Coil/Dennou Coil/Den-nou coil/Dennoh Coil
my anime brain garbage is that this is doing isao takahata’s animated interplay of fantasy and reality but with a narrative justification so its more friendly and commercial. if this is true at all its coincidental nd its an excessively ‘thematic’ take anyway. would need to read and expand my vocabulary to say more
i also watched Trnka’s The Hand which is a good cartoon
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dear brother is an all time classic
dennou coil was not in any way “commercial” imo, it was niche at release and its still niche today. It’s just mitsuo iso doing his thing (well-animated sci fi that is actually SF)
now if we were to talk friendly, commercialized versions of the interplay of fantasy and reality with an sf justification, you’re describing the works of Mamoru Hosoda
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he should only be allowed to make furry stuff, wolf children holds up but when he writes something about the internet it’s like “what if cancel culture… was a gun.” cant think of anyone who hit me with a wider range of moving-to-tears and completely unwatchable
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As expected, Common Side Effects is excellent. It is nicely filling that horrible void left when HBO axed Scavenger’s Reign.
At this point, I am here for anything Joseph Bennett is involved in.
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yeah, i’ve been finding myself rewatching the episodes in anticipation of the next one. it’s fun to notice more details, each time!
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I’m invested and I appreciate the obvious level of quality, the only thing I’m not sure what to make of is the humour. It isn’t that it doesn’t work, it usually does, I don’t really see its purpose in the broader story.
We’ll see, it’s early still and the real weirdness seems to just be starting to creep in. I hope they have better luck with this project than the last.
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i appreciate the subtler jokes, like sarcastically asking if the turtle wants some tea, and Marshall taking the question seriously. oh, i guess i also like the the part with his brother, because i do feel like it captures the weirdness of my mushroom/drug aquaintances.
the stuff like the DEA agents dancing felt a little too cloying to me, but of course i saw folks on bsky being like “this is the greatest animated sequence i’ve ever seen in my life”
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There’s this scene where Marshall and Frances are in a coffee shop and they do a bit about the unusual name of a guy picking up a latte and it really bumped me out of the entire thing to see the show pull over to deliver this Everybody Loves Raymond-ass gag. Felt strange and out-of-character.
I wonder if they’re asked to make it funnier, due to it being in the Adult Swim stoner zone time slot?
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