it’s magical realist I Dream of Jeannie if major nelson was a dipshit high schooler and not an astronaut. perfect pitch
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putting you on the list for citing Jeannie over Bewitched
(also if you read up on it, Bewitched is culturally important in Japanese pop culture. it’s the first magical girl show after all)
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I had typed bewitched and changed it because I felt like it emphasized the wrong domestic aspects
that’s how you can tell this was an original insight
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I only put UY in anime club because @HOBO suggested it and i thought i would hate it but it turns out it was my favorite show in the block
Yes, even more than Cowboy Bebop.
It’s great and constantly inventive and cynical but sentimental too? And i love how Ataru is being constantly punished, he earns it every time. And there’s definitely cheesecake but it’s pretty minimal.
Tellingly i did love both Jeannie and Bewitched as a kid.
Anyway Lum is very relatable somehow despite being a super hot alien oni obsessed with the worst man on the planet. Good show.
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Lum’s mom is hotter tho
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the comics are great too, the thick viz paperbacks are like £10 here and the local comic store has a 3 for 2 thing so it was always great mental comfort to know i could reliably get just a phonebook sized 1200 page clump of manic gag comedy manga for 20bux and essentially be set for the next couple of days.
for some reason the editors also decided that the books should occasionally be broken up by all-new “character information” sections made up entirely of sublimely hyperspecific trivia reported in the most blandly neutral tone. like “3 - that’s the amount of times ran eats an icecream over the series, which is more times than she is shown eating any other kind of food.” or “if he sees something, he will pick it up - many stories revolve around the fact that when ataru sees something, he will mostly pick it up. keep an eye out for ataru picking things up as you read the chapters 
”.
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I’ve been on a bit of an anime bender lately, mostly watching 80s /90s stuff that I’d never seen previously.
I kinda suck at articulating my thoughts in a coherent or concise manner, so I’m hiding them in a summary in case there’s too much ramble:
Summary
Urusei Yatsura 3: Remember My Love - This is the first non-Oshii UY thing I’ve seen besides Catch The Heart. It’s pretty good! The plot has this feeling at the end of being kinda inconsequential, like a TV episode stretched to 90 minutes but I guess they’re all a bit like that.
Project A-Ko - This one had somehow flown under my radar all this time, I think I’d heard the title and seen screenshots but must have assumed it was some mediocre fluff about schoolgirl detectives or something. Anyway, it’s an instant top 20 for me. The animation is kinda mind-blowing considering how much this is basically just a plotless wacky parody film, but they just go all-out with the action scenes and the mecha designs in the second half. Some elements of it have obviously not aged very well though.
My main thought while watching it was that it’s kinda like a full length Daicon IV
Record of Lodoss war - Basically just generic fantasy stuff, but with that 90s JRPG feel that hits in the right spot for me. It’s about as close to a Shining Force anime as we’d ever get. I was surprised how limited the animation was in the OVA though. The dragons are basically cardboard cutouts.
The TV series is not as good but I think it still had some merit (mostly just more Shining Force vibes).
Arion - Fun movie, although definitely suffers from that ‘6 volumes of manga condensed into 90 minutes’ syndrome. I’ve been listening to Joe Hisaishi’s Image Album and it’s got some great synth stuff on there.
Venus Wars - Similar issue to above, although rather than cramming too much story in, it’s more like they streamlined the plot down way too much, and as a result the plot and characters feel half baked. It’s saved by the amazing animation, action scenes and music though.
Robot Carnival - Not really much to say about it besides it was cool, although most of the shorts felt too brief to really leave much of an impression. Like I’m not really sure I can name which one was my favourite. Feels like it’d be a good one to put on and switch off the brain while watching the pretty visuals though.
Memories - I think this one fairs better than Robot Carnival in terms of the films being better fleshed out, although weirdly I find it maybe less memorable, oddly enough. The second one was probably the surprise favourite for me.
Galaxy Express 999 & Adieu Galaxy Express 999 - Loved these movies. I love that it just has this ‘anything goes’ mentality that doesn’t care about about realism and just throws everything from cowboys, space pirates and TIME CASTLE into this epic space opera. Like a kid upending his toybox and having his Kenner Luke Skywalker go on an adventure with Barbie on the choo choo train to Lego land. It has this great sense of wonder and mystery, and some really dark moments too (Tetsuro seeing his mother’s taxidermized corpse in the time castle and Claire’s remains being unceremoniously tipped out the train with a dustpan in particular were shocking to me).
All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku - The OVA was pretty good, unexpectedly it’s kinda about a custody dispute? Nothing much else to say about it though, I mostly watched it because I remember seeing the advert for it in a Max Overload issue and since then it’s been sort of stuck in the back of my mind like it’s meant to be one of those old classics for some reason.
I’m currently in the middle of Nuku Nuku TV, and … yeah this thing is dire. Every character is just one joke endlessly repeated and they clearly didn’t care about any of the stories as they basically fizzle out before anything can develop. There’s some genuine chuckles in there but they’re drowned out by the insufferable recycled jokes.
There’s also Nuku Nuku Dash on the same disc which looks … uhhh interesting. Guess I’ll see what that’s like.
Next up on my list is Crusher Joe, then I’ll need to find something else, so if anyone has any good recs for 80s anime stuff feel free to throw them at me.
Was thinking about picking up the Galaxy Express TV series, but it looks maybe a bit too long, is it worth watching? And what about that new movie/OVA they made in the late 90s?
Also what’s the best entry point into the Captain Harlock stuff? Arcadia of my Youth?
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The Dirty Pair TV show. It’s a crusher joe spin-off even if this fact never actually matters in the anime.
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Ah yes Dirty Pair is definitely on my list
Just remembered i downloaded Dallos and didn’t watch it yet, so probably better do that one too even if its supposedly lacklustre
i’ve been watching Dragon Ball in earnest for the first time, really, and making my way through season 1 at the moment.
i love this show and it rules but also i will never recommend it to anyone
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I will never apologize for loving Master Roshi…
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Crusher Joe is pretty good, kinda bummed there’s only the one movie and 2 OVAs.
Nuku Nuku DASH just makes me think that someone must have been really convinced Nuku Nuku was the next Lum or something, but just couldn’t get the formula right to make it a success.
Like, the manga only lasted 3 chapters so they though “I bet it would reach a wider audience as an anime”, but that didn’t reach sales targets so they thought “What if we aimed it at kids?”
But then that failed so they just go “Okay lets just make it really horny and occasionally inject some drama in there”.
At no point did anyone think “What if we gave it a plot?”
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The funniest part of Nuku Nuku Dash is the episode where she finds a box full of kittens and then for the entire runtime it sounds like someone just repeatedly pressing the meow button on the SFX machine
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rewatching utena and anthy’s smiling is enough to bring me to tears so i’m bracing myself for the later episodes. i went through a p solid utena era but my anthy era is just as important to me.
she deserves the world i love her so much
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https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2022/03/22/crunchyroll-announces-spring-2022-lineup
Looking forward to Spy X Family and Ascendance of a Bookworm S3, in particular.
big “Crunchyroll announces that they have all the anime” energy from their lineup
yoooooooo
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love the manga but I don’t care for Wit Studio’s work
Another manga I love, Vinland Saga, had a disappointing adaptation by Wit Studio
Then again, I’m always hopeful.
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i’m still reading the manga but i’ve been dying for this to be an anime for awhile
here’s hoping it doesn’t suck tho i never watched vinland saga so idk
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