Category Archives: Anime

The Curator of Schlock #379: Memories

29 Friday Apr 2022

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The Curator of Schlock #379 by Jeff Shuster

Memories

Three movies in one.

I was in tears when Larry, a secret agent of the Canadian government, informed me that Edwige, my kangaroo companion, would have to be transported to a kangaroo sanctuary somewhere in Gibraltar. I was allowed to ride in a truck with her to a port in Halifax. I gave her a deep hug before she was set to board a ship that would take her away from me forever. Edwige then broke from my embrace and kicked me in the face. I crashed to the ground and I could have swore Edwige was laughing at me as she hopped aboard the ship.

I’m going to wrap up Anime Month with yet another anthology movie, 1995’s Memories from directors Koji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, and Katsuhiro Otomo. I remember hearing of this movie during the early days of my access to the Internet. I was hungry for more animated anthology movies like Robot Carnival or Heavy Metal. Somehow I learned of this movie and waited patiently for it to come stateside, but a North American release would elude until about eight years later. Sony put out a fine DVD of this feature back in 2004 and Memories has recently received the Blu-ray treatment from Discotek Media.

The first short is Magnetic Rose from director Koji Morimoto. The movie features a group of space faring salvage men in the late 21st century. They receive an SOS call from an abandoned space station. Two of the ship’s engineers, Heintz and Miguel, go to investigate the abandoned facility which we learn belonged to a famous opera singer named Eva Friedel. The entire station station has lavish furnishings and art like something you’d find in an aristocrat’s house from the 19th century.

Holograms emit illusions of the Italian countryside and of a beautiful diva that enchants Miguel, a would-be lothario. Back on the ship, the crew informs Heintz and Miguel that Eva retreated to this station in the 2030s after her fiancé was murdered and she lost her voice and singing career. Eva left Earth for this station to drown in her memories and she now wants to draw in Heintz and Miguel. This is a creepy story and the idea that this ghost may be a combination of artificial intelligence and nanotechnology makes her no less terrifying. The score for this sequence  comes from the opera Madame Butterfly and was covered by Yoko Kano of Cowboy Bebop fame.

The second short is Stink Bomb from director Tensai Okamura, a darkly humous tale of a biological weapon turned loose on the Japanese populace. Nobua Tanaka is a lab technician battling the flu when a coworker suggests he takes a couple of pills from a new experimental cold medicine left on his boss’s desk. The pills kill his cold and turn Tanaka into a walking bringer of death that kills anything that comes near him. His body produces a cloud of stink that wipes out anything that smells it. This story was inspired by the Gloria Ramirez incident, a cancer patient that had caused severe illness in the staff at a California hospital due to her self-administering dimethyl sulfoxide which her body converted into a deadly toxin that exposed the hospital workers (if I’m to believe Wikipedia).

The third and final short is Cannon Fodder from director Katsuhiro Otomo. This film is about a day in the life of a family whose entire purpose in life is to prepare cannons to be fired at the enemy nation of their society. In fact, the whole society’s purpose is to prepare and fire the many hundreds of cannons aimed at the enemy nation. Elementary school teaches the students about the essentials of gunpowder and correct trajectory. Class is based on what level you are on the cannon firing ladder. You want to be the one firing the cannon and not some loser cannon-loader. I have to marvel at how hideous and miserable the characters in this short look.

And that’s it for Memories. If you ever had an interest in anime, this might be a good place to start.

Photo by Leslie Salas

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, and episode 496) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

The Curator of Schlock #378: Mary and the Witch’s Flower

22 Friday Apr 2022

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The Curator of Schlock #378 by Jeff Shuster

Mary and the Witch’s Flower

Kind of like a Ghibli movie.

The nightmare was over. Operatives from the Canadian government had infiltrated a marsupial slaughterhouse in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Edwige, my kangaroo companion, and myself were saved. All of the surviving animals were to be transported to animal sanctuaries. And then Larry, the Don Knotts looking special operative, gave me some bad news that hit me straight in the gut. I had to say goodbye to Edwige.

A few weeks back I reviewed Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, an attempt by a Japanese animation company to produce a movie in the style of classic Disney animation. The critics lambasted it and I felt the need to defend the movie because, at the very least, it was pretty to look at. But looks aren’t everything and, in retrospect, Little Nemo proved to be a hollow experience as the protagonist was a bit of a floater. This brings us 2017’s Mary and the Witch’s Flower from director Hiromasa Yonebayashi.

Mary and the Witch’s Flower is the first feature film of Studio Ponoc, a company formed by Yoshiaki Nishimura, the former lead producer of Studio Ghibli, a production company said to rival the Walt Disney Studios in terms of quality animated features for children and adults, Why did he leave Ghibli? Well, the studio shutdown following Hayao Miyazaki’s retirement, Miyazaki being one of the great living legends of animation. Unfortunately, this must have left many of the animators out of a job so they went with Nishimura to form a new studio and keep the style of Studio Ghibli alive.

On the surface, Mary and the Witch’s Flower has the look and feel of a top notch Studio Ghibli production. The movie is based on the children’s novel The Little Broomstick by English author Mary Stewart. Studio Ghibli had also produced movies based on English children’s novels such as The Borrowers by Mary Norton and Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Studio Ghibli English dubs are also known for featuring top talent and Mary and the Witch’s Flower features Ruby Barnhill, Kate Winslet, and Jim Broadbent.

With all of these elements coming together, we should have a movie set to rival any that Studio Ghibli had to offer, allowing Studio Ponco to carry on the legacy. Unfortunately, the experience left me feeling flat. Yes, the animation itself is up to the level of a Studio Ghibli production, but our heroine isn’t up to the Ghibli standard. Sheila O’Malley of RogerEbert.com is spot on when she says, “There’s no real inner conflict in the character, informing her choices (consciously or unconsciously).”

I remember in Kiki’s Delivery Service how Kiki loses faith in herself or how Chihiro breaks down after surviving her first night in the bath house of the spirits in Spirited Away. I’ve heard that Hayou Miyazaki has come out of retirement to make one final movie, How Do You Live? After that, it may be the end of an era for this style of animated movie, much how classic Disney animation has faded away; so too may Ghibli.

Photo by Leslie Salas

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, and episode 496) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

The Curator of Schlock #377: Short Peace

15 Friday Apr 2022

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The Curator of Schlock #377 by Jeff Shuster

Short Peace

Don’t ask about the title.

I had collapsed in shock after witnessing a security guard get mauled to death by Tasmanian devils while trapped in a cage with a female kangaroo named Edwige. The devils ignored us, choosing to go after the other factory workers in the distance. Maybe it was a kinship toward Edwige and the other marsupials in this slaughterhouse for black market meats. Hours later, a team of soldiers led by Larry, a secret agent of the Canadian government bearing a striking resemblance to Don Knots, freed Edwige and myself from our cage. — To be continued.

This week’s anime extravaganza is 2013’s Short Peace, another animated anthology of short films from directors Koji Morimoto, Shuhei Morita, Katsuhiro Otomo, Hiroaki Ando, and Hajime Katoki. One of these shorts, Possessions, was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. The movie begins with a little girl following a rabbit into a chamber filled with wondrous delights that serves as a hub for the different worlds that await the audience.

The first short is the aforementioned Possessions. It begins in old Japan. A traveler  caught in a forest during a raging storm. He enters a shrine to escape the rain, apologizes to whichever spirits reside on the sacred ground. Before he knows it, he’s in a room surrounded by fancy umbrellas, all complaining about their state of decay. The traveler marvels at their craftsmanship and proceeds to repair them with materials made available to him. He repairs garments as well, but then requests that the spirits let him out, but the spirits of the abandoned items turn violent. Will he survive the night?

The next short is titled Combustible, and as you can tell from the title, it’s about fire. The short begins with an illustrated scroll rolling out. The images spring to life and we get a tale of a bride wanting a man other than her betrothed. She’s in love with a member of the town’s fire brigade. In her despair, she accidentally starts a fire, infighting her home and the entire neighborhood.

The third short is Gambo, a tale of a bear and an ogre. The short begins with a defeated samurai asking the big, white bear Gambo if he’s a messenger from God or something to that effect. In a nearby village, a giant red ogre with a twisted face and sharp horns attacks the villagers and makes off with one of the young maidens to impregnate her with his devil spawn. Later, Gambo meets the daughter of the emperor who conveys her despair and gets him to destroy the ogre’s lair. A brutal fight between bear and ogre ensues. The samurai from the beginning of the film rushed to Gambo’s aid.

The final short is titled A Farewell to Weapons and is about a group of scavengers looking for valuables in an abandoned city after a future World War. An artificially intelligent super tank wakes up and gives chase. Realizing how deadly this weapon is, the men vow to destroy it. And that about sums up Short Peace. I liked how some of the shorts were cel animated while others incorporated CG into the traditional look of cel animation. For fans of animated anthologies, this one is not to be missed.

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, and episode 496) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

The Curator of Schlock #376: Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

08 Friday Apr 2022

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The Curator of Schlock #376 by Jeff Shuster

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

Is it anime?

You ever watch a man get eaten alive by Tasmanian devils? I have. You ever watch a man get eaten alive by Tasmanian devils while trapped inside a cage with a kangaroo named Edwige? I have. You ever watch a man get eaten alive by Tasmanian devils while trapped in a cage with a kangaroo named Edwige while blowing bubbles with sour apple flavored Bubblicious bubble gum? I have.

Jealous much?

This week’s movie is 1992’s Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland from directors Masami Hate and William Hurtz. At some point, I hope they make a documentary on the making of this motion picture as it had been stuck in development hell for about fifteen years. Producer Yutaka Fujioka wanted to enter the U.S. market with a feature length adaptation of a classic American comic strip by Winsor McCay. Names attached to this production include Ray Bradbury, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Brad Bird, and Chris Columbus to name a few.

From what I can gather, this movie was an attempt by a Japanese animation studio to create a feature in the American style of animation, something akin to what the Walt Disney Studios would make. Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland had an estimated budget of $35 million dollars, but only made $14 million at the box office. I have to say, growing up I’d never heard anyone talk about this movie. It most likely was overshadowed by the recent Disney offerings of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.

I did a little digging and found an old Siskel & Ebert clip where they were not too kind to this movie. In Roger Ebert’s review, he states “Nemo himself has the IQ of an eggplant, but at least he doesn’t talk much.” Who is Nemo? He’s a 7 or 8-year-old boy with a wild imagination. When he goes to sleep, he dreams of piloting his bed through the summer sky and getting chased down by choo choo trains. Nemo also has a pet flying squirrel named Icarus because why not.

The circus is coming to town and Nemo begs his dad to take him, but Nemo’s dad is too concerned with grown up stuff like working and putting food on the table and a roof over their heads. I’m also not sure that Nemo deserves to go to the circus as he tries to steal a piece of his mother’s pie after promising not to. Nemo falls asleep and is awakened by a Professor Genius and his troop of circus performers. He presents Nemo with a gift from the Princess Camille of Slumberland, a box of fancy cookies she baked herself.

Professor Genius tells Nemo that he’s to become Princess Camille’s new playmate so off to Slumberland they go, in a dirigible no less. Slumberland is an amazing place with tall buildings and fireworks and fireworks shaped like buildings. He meets King Morpheus, a rotund fellow who makes him his heir and gives him a special key that can open any door in the kingdom. Nemo is told not to open the door with a dragon symbol on it. A grifter named Flip (voiced by Mickey Rooney) convinces Nemo to open the door and, wouldn’t you know it, the evil Nightmare gets out and kidnaps King Morpheus.

So Nemo makes stupid decisions while in Slumberland, but how many of us make smart decisions while in a dream? I didn’t like the main character. I didn’t hate him. Nemo is just kind of along for the ride along with the audience. Apparently, this movie was released in Japan three years prior to the American release and I’m curious as to whether the Japanese version had a different script. You can catch the English release on Amazon Prime streaming.

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, and episode 496) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

The Curator of Schlock #375: Robot Carnival

01 Friday Apr 2022

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The Curator of Schlock #375 by Jeff Shuster

Robot Carnival

Nine animators, One vision.

An army of rabid Tasmanian devils rushed the security guard and myself. I did what any sane person would do and ran for my life. Edwige, my kangaroo companion and two other kangaroos were locked away in cages. I slid the latch off of Edwige’s cage and crammed myself inside. I watched in horror as the Tasmanian devils lunged at the security guard, sinking their jaws into him. — To be continued.

This month is Anime Month on this humble schlock blog. I’ll begin with the feature that got me Japanese animation in the first place, 1991’s Robot Carnival. I don’t list a director as this an anthology film made of up many directors that includes a who’s who of the Japanese animation industry of the time such as Koji Morimoto, Hidetoshi Ōmori, Yasuomi Umetsu, Hiroyuki Kitazume, Manabu Ōhashi, Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Takashi Nakamura, and Katsuhiro Otomo. Each of these directors was given a task: create a short film involving robots.

Robot Carnival might be the closest you’re ever going to get to an anime version of Walt Disney’s Fantasia. No classical music here, but you do get an excellent electronic score by Isaku Fujita  and Joe Hisaishi, the latter best known for composing the scores for the films of the great Hayao Miyazaki. Like Fantasia, most of these shorts have no dialogue, In fact, the short Nightmare is a direct homage to Night on Bald Mountain segment from Fantasia.

I first caught this movie on the Sci-Fi channel back in the fall of 1993. We were visiting a family friend over the Thanksgiving holidays and they had this wondrous device called a satellite dish that gave me access to channels I had never seen before. One of these channels was the Sci-Fi channel and they were showing a movie called Robot Carnival during an anime marathon. I would sneak watch when no one was around, absorbed in the state of the art animation I was seeing on screen. I wouldn’t get another opportunity to watch Robot Carnival until I got regular access to the Sci-Fi channel years later.

I picked up the VHS at a Suncoast Video in 1996. I watched repeatedly and worried about wearing the tape out, a common problem back the days before DVD. I was an early adopter, picking up my first player in 1998. I waited patiently for Robot Carnival to make its DVD debut in North America, but it would not get an official release until about seventeen years later. And when it did come out on DVD, the shorts were in the wrong order!

Allow me to explain. Depending on which version of Robot Carnival you watch, the shorts are presented in a different order. There is the Japanese original, the North American theatrical, and the North American laserdisc. When Carl Macek released the movie in theaters, he wanted the reel changes to occur in-between the shorts so as not to disrupt them. The Japanese producers allowed him to do this. I figure the laserdisc order was changed so as to disrupt the movie as little as possible when you needed to flip the disc. Yes, you needed to flip LaserDiscs over to watch the second half of the movie.

I learned all of this from the wonderful supplements on Blu-ray release from Discotek Media. And the great thing about the Blu-ray is that you have the option of watching the shorts in the original Japanese order, North American theatrical, or North American LaserDisc. The North American LaserDisc order even has a fake LaserDisc load screen. Obviously, great care was taken to make sure the fans of this movie can watch their preferred version.

I guess I haven’t said much about this motion picture because you need to just experience Robot Carnival for yourself. It is available to stream for free through several apps such as Tubi, Vudu, and Pluto TV. Jonathan Greenall of CBR calls Robot Carnival an “unsung anime masterpiece.” He’s not wrong so check out what was for the longest time my favorite movie.

Photo by Leslie Salas

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, and episode 496) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #151: Dolly Parton Reference

01 Wednesday Dec 2021

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Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #151 by Drew Barth

Dolly Parton Reference

It’s finally a Wednesday… Finally here… Wednesday. And that means it’s a Jojo Wednesday this week. A bit over two years since the conclusion of the animated adaptation of Hirohiko Araki’s Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, we’re finally at the premiere of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean. Although this one is a little different, with it being shown exclusively on Netflix, it is still nice to see Stone Ocean animated in all its batshit-road-trip-across-Florida-insanity

Stone Ocean is the sixth part of the long-running manga, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The series as a whole is centered on the Joestar family and their bloodline throughout the decades—their battles, their deaths, and everything else that can happen around them. Stone Ocean follows Jolyne Cujoh, daughter of Stardust Crusaders’ protagonist Jotaro Kujo, and her incarceration in Green Dolphin Street Prison in Port St. Lucie. Jolyne, along with fellow prisoners Hermes Costello and a sapient colony of plankton inhabiting a dead woman’s body known as Foo Fighters, must unravel the mysteries of Whitesnake—a malicious force that can trap people’s memories and Stand abilities in physical disks. As mysterious as it is dangerous, Whitesnake has stole the memories and Stand of Jotaro Kujo and will attempt to kill Jolyne multiple times through surrogates to prevent her from taking back her estranged father’s discs. It’s a lot and this is maybe the first couple volumes out of seventeen.

From the bits and pieces we’ve already seen of the animated series, David Productions is going to be following the source material very closely—from the designs of Stands like Stone Free and Weather Report to the layout of Green Dolphin Street Prison itself. And because of that, there has always been an odd discussion surrounding these adaptations and that’s if someone should read the original manga first. And, normally, I would say yes. But despite Stone Ocean concluding in 2003, there has yet to be an official release of the manga in the US. The previous part, Golden Wind, only started getting its official manga releases in August, but there hasn’t been much of Stone Ocean just yet. And that’s definitely a shame as Stone Ocean was one of those pivotal moments in Araki’s development as a mangaka. The style we see him ending this part with is the style that has become his most iconic over the past twenty years with everything from fashion spreads to new covers for series re-releases. It feels like all of that started with this part of his manga, but we’re still not allowed to see it in English officially just yet.

As always, I’m going to evangelize Jojo as one of the best shonen manga ever released and this animated adaptation is likely going to continue my trend of evagelization. And for good reason. I’ve written previously about some of the major issues with shonen manga and Jojo’s supplanting of those tropes in favor of more sectional storytelling. I’m also excited for this entire series to be animated as it ends on a note very few manga have approached, but it’s something that many western comic fans will be very familiar with.

Get excited. Get free.

Drew Barth at Miami Book Fair in 2019.

Drew Barth (Episode 331 & 485) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

Episode 422: Michael Merriam!

30 Saturday May 2020

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Episode 422 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Michael Merriam

This week, Michael Merriam and I discuss the 2010 cult film, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, and in this conversation we address the classic structure of film; the importance of the perfect flaw for a protagonist and antagonist; Joseph Campbell (naturally); the Bible; why Reality Bites bites; video games and the psychological logic of true boss fights; the abundance of super hero actors in this film; comic book adaptations; tropes in anime; and how comedies can house tales with deeply serious content, for those who can look past the jokes.

TEXT DISCUSSED

Scott Pilgrm poster

 

NOTES on the film

The Fights

  1. Matthew Patel (Easy fight)
  2. Lucas Lee (Has to get Lucas to defeat himself skating)
  3. Todd Ingram/Envy Adams (Tricks Todd into drinking milk)
  4. Roxy Richter (Ramona uses Scott as a fight puppet)
  5. Kyle and Ken Katayanagi (Sex Bob-omb creates a more powerful music avatar)
  6. Gideon (Scott dies, is resurrected)
  7. Gideon II (Scott heals his relationships with Kim, Knives, and Ramona, and Scott and Knives enact a 2-player fight to beat Gideon)

The Turning Point Choices (film structure)

  1. Scott thanks Ramona for letting him sleep in her bed.
  2. Scott breaks up with Knives
  3. Scott agrees to help Sex Bob-Omb open for The Clash at Demonhead (a gig shared with Scott’s ex-girlfriend).
  4. Scott shows up to fight Gideon for Ramona, even though she isn’t his girlfriend anymore.
  5. Scott chooses to fight Gideon, for himself (to prove he no longer has Gideon’s flaws)

 

The Superhero Actors

  • Lucas Lee is played by Chris Evans (Johnny Storm before SP, and Captain America after SP)
  • Envy Adams is played by Brie Larson (Captain Marvel after SP)
  • Todd Ingram is played by Brandon Routh (who played Superman before SP)
  • The Vegan Police Executioner is played by Thomas Jane (who played The Punisher before SP)

The Hero’s Journey

Departure

1 The Call to Adventure—The Dream of the Girl (Ironically, not an idealized girl)

2 Refusal of the Call—Deleting Matthew Pattel’s Email (Bo-ring.)

3 Meeting the Mentor—Wallace makes him break up with Knives, and tells him to fight! Comeau (who knows everybody) also assists in giving Scott intel on Ramona

4 Crossing the First Threshold—Julie tells Scott not to hit on Ramona.

5 Belly of the Whale—facing Lucas Lee and his doubles. (Scott faces setbacks, loses Ramona.)


Initiation

1 The Road of Trials— opening for The Clash at Demonhead, fighting Todd.

2 The Meeting with the Goddess—Dealing with Envy Adams, Roxy Richter, and Ramona—outgrows Envy.

3 The Woman As Temptress—Scott acts like such a jerk that Ramona breaks up with him (Scott wants a simple woman).

4 Atonement with the Father/Abyss—Faces Gideon, who holds all the power.

5 Apotheosis—Scott dies, but gains new understanding, and is resurrected (uses extra life).

6 The Ultimate Boon—Sword of self-respect, reconciliation between Knives and Ramona, he is empowered to defeat Gideon

Return

1 Refusal of the Return

2 The Magic Flight—Scott must face off with NegaScott (The equivalent of an angry god.)

3 Rescue from Without

4 The Crossing of the Return Threshold—Knives helps him understand his new place in the world.

5 Master of Two Worlds—Scott lets Ramona go, and accepts Knives’ forgiveness and friendship

6 Freedom to Live—Scott tries again with Ramona, but living in the moment instead of trying to recreate the dream.


NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Consider donating to City Lights Books to sustain it and/or buying a book online from Powells.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame Cover

Episode 422 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #17: The Shonen Problem

01 Wednesday May 2019

Posted by in Anime, Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart, manga

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Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #17 by Drew Barth

The Shonen Problem

Everyone loves a good Shonen series. They’re fast-paced, filled to bursting with action, typically include an expansive cast of characters for anyone to grow attached to, and are fairly fun with that right balance of drama to keep a reader interested. In many ways, Shonen manga and anime are quite similar to monthly superhero comics. And while tastes and styles are different, audiences come to each genre for the same thing: story, characters, and action.

Shonen Jump began as a weekly magazine in Japan roughly fifty years ago and has gone on to become iconic in its status as both the best-selling manga magazine as well as the starting place for many of the most well-known manga in the world. Nearly every major manga series to become popular in the states originated in Shonen Jump—One Piece, Dragon Ball, Naruto, Fist of the North Star, etc.

Sho3

The most popular, beloved series to come out of Shonen Jump is Dragon Ball. Created by Akira Toriyama in 1984, Dragon Ball is to Shonen what Batman is to superhero comics. Dragon Ball as a series has been ubiquitous in popular culture from recent fighting games to Patti Smith (thatPatti Smith) sitting down and enjoying the latest Dragon Ball film. Or perhaps you would prefer this fine fashion from Forever 21? But as a result of Dragon Ball’s ubiquity and popularity, its flaws have also influenced many other popular Shonen series as well.

If you have read Dragon Ball Z or watched the anime when they were younger, then you know the Shonen formula: There’s a bad guy. How do we handle the bad guy? We hit him real hard. That didn’t work. We hit him even harder. That sort of worked, but now the bad guy is also hitting harder. We almost lose and the bad guy is calling us pathetic. Now we’re going to scream and think about our friends/family until we can hit the bad guy SO MUCH HARDERand then we win. We celebrate.

But now there’s another bad guy who hits hard enough to blow up a planet. Guess we got to train/scream/charge up/etc. until we can also hit the new bad guy even harder.

From Dragon Ball Z’s Saiyan Saga onward, that’s more or less how stories unfold. Of course there were more nice character moments, some smaller villains, a bit of comedy, and an android marriage, but the beats perpetually returned to that same cycle.

Many other series ended up falling into this pattern as well. Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach were, and still are, among the other most popular series released by Shonen Jumpbut they still fall into these simplified drama trappings.

Sho1

As long as the main characters can power up through training or sheer force of will, they will always win in the end. Whether it be in the form of a character going Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, utilizing the final techniques of the Sage Art, opening their final Bankai, or going into Gear Four, there’s always another level for all of these main characters to power up to defeat the nextbad guy in a long line of bad guys.

Sho2

When many of these series have hundreds of chapters and have been going on for over twenty years in some cases, the constant powering up and fights become repetitiously, repeatedly, redundantly tiresome.

However, this narrative weakness reminds me of a broader problem with Shonen and other manga genres: many manga chapters are published in various weekly magazines, be it Shonen Jump, Big Comic, etc., and many series chapters are anywhere from ten to eighteen pages. That is sixty to a hundred panels of penciled, inked, finished, and lettered manga in a single week, not including the labor for the mangaka to actually write the story and dialogue. The crunch time for a manga chapter sounds terrible, and with only the mangaka and maybe a couple assistants if they can afford them, I can understand why so many of the most popular Shonen series fall into the above tropes.

Sho4

At the same time, the tropes are partly  why people love Shonen. Reading through chapter #645 of Naruto likely has the same effect as reading Detective Comics #1002. For readers, there is a familiarity with the characters, the setting, and the action that is likely comforting. Shonen manga provides a slightly different use of character since a series is typically a single creative mind working toward an end goal with all the character growth and development that comes with the years of a series being published. But, like with Superhero comics, there is that tendency to fall into the above tropes since there is only so far a creator can take the one or two characters a series is focused on. It makes me wonder: are there are any Shonen series that are roughly thirty years old that don’t have the typical Shonen issues?

Get excited. Next week is a Bizarre Adventure.

drew barth

Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

The Curator of Schlock #267: Fist of the North Star

05 Friday Apr 2019

Posted by in animation, Anime, Film, The Curator of Schlock

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The Curator of Schlock #267 by Jeff Shuster

Fist of the North Star

Welcome all my friends to the show that never ends. 

My MacBook Pro power cord died on me again. This happens from time to time. Maybe I need to hang it up and buy a PC. So I’ll be wrapping up Anime Month today even though it’s April. Tonight’s feature is 1986’s Fist of the North Star from director Toyoo Ashida. This movie is guaranteed to blow your head apart. Sorry. I’ve got Emerson, Lake & Palmer on my brain. Maybe because I saw so many brains exploding out of heads in Fist of the North Star.Fist1This might be the most violent animated motion picture I have ever seen. Hell, this might be the violent motion picture I’ve ever seen. Fist of the North Star begins with the world being nuked into oblivion. Must have been the Soviets. Or maybe it was Matthew Broderick. At any rate, you see the full horror of that nuclear fallout, people stumbling around as their skins melt off. The aftermath leaves the world a wasteland reminiscent of the Mad Max movies. Only the strong survive in this cruel, new world.

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Enter our hero, Ken (voiced by John Vickery), a martial arts master with the title of Fist of the North Star. While traveling with his fiancé, Julia (voiced by Melodee Spivack), he gets challenged by the Fist of the South Star, Shin (voiced by Michael McConnohie). Shin is Ken’s best friend from childhood, but he wants Julia for himself so he challenges Ken to a fight. One thing to note about many of the men in this film is that they’ve got muscles upon muscles upon muscles. Arms and legs shaped like tree trunks. I wonder how these men can pack on the muscle when food is so scarce in this post-apocalyptic world.

Fist of the North Star Movie 10

Fist of the North Star Movie 10

Ken loses the bout and is left for dead. Shin and his gang of hooligans make off with Julia. Fast-forward a year. A gang of marauders is chasing two kids named Bat and Lin. I think Lin has some psionic powers because she summons Ken from the wasteland. Ken fights the marauders and knocks a couple of ruined skyscrapers over. This movie is kind of a blur to me. Maybe it’s because I can’t keep track of whose head exploded when and where.

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Yes, Ken has a martial arts technique where he touches pressure points on another guy’s head resulting in his opponent’s brain exploding from his skull. People get killed in all sorts of ways in this movie. Some get crisscrossed into chunks. Others spill their guts all over the ground. It’s all really quit nasty. Still, if you look past the carnage, you’ve got a movie that champions love, honor, and the restoration of the Earth to a green paradise. I think they released a Fist of the North Star video game last year. You get to explode men’s heads in the game. It’s amazing what they can do with technology these days.

Jeffrey Shuster 3

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

The Curator of Schlock #266: Twilight of the Cockroaches

22 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by in animation, Anime, The Curator of Schlock

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The Curator of Schlock #266 by Jeff Shuster

Twilight of the Cockroaches

Not to be confused with Grave of the Fireflies. 

The VHS cassette box for Twilight of the Cockroaches, a live action/anime hybrid movie, has a quote from Richard Harrington of The Washington Post. He says, “Could do for cockroaches what ‘The Secret of NIMH’ did for rats.” Now I know you kids have never heard of the Don Bluth animated masterpiece, The Secret of NIMH. It tanked at the box office leading Don Bluth to spend his energy making the arcade game Dragon’s Lair. You remember Dragon’s Lair, don’t ya? It was featured on that Stranger Things show that you guys love so much.

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Anyway, we’re not here to talk about The Secret of NIMH. Tonight’s feature is 1987’s Twilight of the Cockroaches from director Hiroaki Yoshida, a movie that proves that cockroaches are people too. The movie centers around a pretty, young cockroach named Naomi (voiced by Rebecca Forstadt) who’s engaged to a boring, yet stable young cockroach named Ichiro (voiced by Stephen Apostolina). They live an idyllic life with their community of roaches in the apartment of a Japanese bachelor named Saito (Kaoru Kobayashi), who gave up killing roaches when his wife and daughter left him. Saito lets the roaches roam free in his apartment, letting them eat whatever they want.

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What on Earth am I watching here? Twilight of the Cockroaches is an interesting production in that it combines live-action acting with animation not unlike Mary Poppinsor Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The technique is rather neat, featuring animated cockroaches against a backdrop of real life images such as Nike footwear and Heinz Ketchup bottles. While the movie does feature human characters in the form of Saito and his eventual girlfriend, Momoko (Setsuko Karasuma), the story focuses on the cockroaches, kind of like the latest Planet of the Apes movie. Except the cockroaches get their butt kicked in this movie.

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A young woman named Momoko lives in the apartment across the way from Saito and she hates cockroaches. She buys all kind of sprays and traps, trying her damnedest to eliminate every cockroach in the vicinity. As a result, the tribe of cockroaches living on her property is a warrior tribe. One of these warriors is a handsome cockroach named Hans. He even has a cleft chin. After an excursion, he finds his way over to Saito’s apartment and Naomi falls for him instantly. Hans recovers and returns to his tribe, but Naomi follows him. They begin a torrid affair. Oh, along the way, Naomi runs into a talking turd. The talking turd is done with clay animation. What on Earth am I watching here?

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Saito and Momoko also fall for each other. She moves into Saito’s apartment. so we know what that means. What follows is truly horrifying, a genocide of a race of creatures who just wanted to live peacefully with their human hosts. The warrior tribe of cockroaches comes to aid of the soft, yuppie tribe, but they get wiped out too. Naomi survives, pregnant with the next generation of cockroaches, immune to the poisons currently used by humans. This will force the humans to create deadlier poisons that will lead to even tougher cockroaches developing immunity to such poisons. Such is the fate of the cockroach as decreed by the god of the cockroaches. What on Earth am I watching here?

Jeffrey Shuster 3

Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.