Minerva is the young princess of a kingdom ruled over by her overly protective father. While he thinks the world is far too dangerous for a young girl to be out doing reckless things, Minerva has no desire to sit around the castle. Instead, she practices forbidden magic, trains in sword fighting, and even dresses up in super heroic costumes to fight evil in disguise. Her hand servant and bodyguard Blue Morris is always trying to get the princess to behave, but ends up getting her hopes up for nothing, leaving her feeling hopelessly ignored. Things come to a head when Minerva decides that she needs to enter the local tournament to prove herself (or at least, prove her alternate persona to fight crime), leaving Blue Morris angrily when she wouldn’t stop.
Meanwhile, an entire group of misfits slowly starts to form together without knowing it. A young thief steals some food from a warrior woman, the woman chasing him. The two run into a former priestess with a half elf, quite literally in fact, trampling the former priestess in their hurry. The priestess and half elf join in the chase to catch the two that ran over them. A rogue tries to hold up a woman that ends up being a famous assassin… only to have their fight interrupted by the 4 chasing strangers. The foppish bandit gets run over, forgetting the assassin to chase down the people that ran him over, the assassin following as well.
The thief finally runs into a dead end at the wall surrounding the kingdom belonging to Minerva’s father, stopping the entire chase. Before things can get out of hand, a merchant walks through, trying to sell them things even as she also gets swept up into the arguing. Things are more abruptly interrupted when a strange masked girl appears… Minerva in disguise. Just as fighting’s about to break out however, the town guard come and arrest everyone (except Minerva), taking them off to jail together. They only get let out thanks to the generosity of Blue Morris, who knows it’s Minerva’s fault they got in there.
I don’t want to give away ALL of the plot, especially since the anime is so short. I WILL say that an event brings them all together behind Minerva, setting up the group that you supposedly had in the Princess Minerva video game RPG back in the 90s. The game was never released outside Japan, so I never played it, but it really feels like no more than a long introduction. That’s fine, since it’s nice promotional material for the game, and has characters that are already developed as well. The English dubbing is average for the era, the graphics are the same, though neither are BAD.
Being a video that’s less than an hour, and really just a prequel to a game, it’s not something that’s for everyone. It’s cute in its own way, with a few nice funny moments. I got it for only $2-3 on DVD, and at that price it’s just fine. It’s not something to reach for or try to make a priority. If you see it on a video streaming service, or bundled with something else for free, or even real cheap on DVD… I can’t say it’s not at least worth a glance as a short funny video game tie in.
Eriko, Yuma, and Ayano are new students at an all girl’s high school, and they’re excited. The three end up being so excited that Eriko devises a plan for sneaking into the school the day before, slipping on the school uniform, and trying to pass as upperclassmen so they can look around the school early. Unfortunately, after looking around for a while, they run into a group of three underclassmen that also snuck in the day before (though without the disguises); Akari, Kyoko, and Ikue. The three mistake Eriko and crew for senior students, something Eriko decides to run with instead of embarrassing themselves and risking getting caught. Unfortunately, Eriko, Yuma and Ayano all end up in the same class as Akari, Kyoko, and Ikue, and they’re not happy about being lied to!
Thankfully, the two groups make up without too much fuss, and soon they’re all fast friends. Eriko, the nominal main character, is clumsy and unlucky, yet always willing to help out her friends in need. Yuma and Ayano are longer term friends that met Eriko in junior high, Yuma being a sports loving girl with poor grades, and Ayano being an overly romantic and innocent girl with an extreme bout of shyness. Akari is the spokeswoman for the private school group, a rich and flamboyant girl given to dramatic costumes and believing herself destined to become a great actress. Kyoko is the only girl who starts high school with a boyfriend, as well as being the only one to have lost her virginity, Kyoko being trusting of boys and easily enraptured. Ikue is the smallest of the group, looking and acting a bit like a grade school kind, a bit naive but always cheerful.
While the focus remains on the 6 girls and their time in high school, there are a few extra’s that keep appearing in their lives. Their homeroom teacher, Mr. Onigiri, is seen as a pervert and pretty boy too stuck up with himself for his own good. The girls also end up running into Macho Matsuo a lot, the hairy, buff, self absorbed gym teacher. We also end up meeting Yuma’s sister, Ayano’s new boyfriend (plus her mother and sister), and Akari’s junior high rival. Even as all these extras come and go, the girls always try to remain together.
While there are a lot of anime out there focused on the lives of high school girls, the humor and “normal life” that the series portrays makes for immediate connections with Azumanga Daioh. Like Azumanga, the girls have no magic, no chance to save Japan or the world, no super talents they’re taking to national tournaments. All of the girls are pretty well normal, at least as far as skills are concerned. Unlike Azumanga, the teachers aren’t seen as cool role-models, and boyfriends are a lot more important to have.Also unlike Azumanga, the series runs only one season and lacks and English dub.
Girl’s High isn’t a bad anime by most measures. The girls are all likeable enough, the humor is spot on more than not, and the voice acting is just fine. A part of the problem is that most anime are about high school students, and a good number are about high school life. Girl’s High is most immediately reminiscent of Azumanga Daioh to me, but there are a lot of other anime that it can be compared to. At the end of the day, Girl’s High doesn’t do enough to stand out and be memorable. It lacks any more fantastical elements to add a factor of surprise to it, nor do any of the girls really stand out as a long time memorable character. Instead, despite the smile worthy humor and desire to see it through, Girl’s High is too quickly forgotten.
That said, it’s cheap to get and a fine watch. If you have time and just want to watch something cute and over in a few nights at most, I can say I recommend watching Girl’s High. It’s not quite for kids, there’s enough talk of sex and high school topics to be a bit more mature than kids would usually watch, but at the same time, anyone that’s able to have a bit more open minded anime, nothing’s offensive or crude. Give it a watch, enjoy it, and forget all about it.
Ryuko Matoi’s father died before her eyes 6 months ago. After being separated from him at his own request to attend a private school, Ryuko was called to him mysteriously one day, only to find him dying with a scissor blade half stuck into him. With his dying words he told her that the person who had the other half was his killer, but begged her not to pursue them.
Jump to the present where, heedless of her father’s words, Ryuko has gone around Japan, picking fights looking for the owner of the other half of that blade. Her travels have brought her finally to Honnoji Academy, the top high school in Japan. Striding in and looking to instigate a fight with the top person at the school, she finds out the school uses special uniforms for those of higher ranking, the higher the rank the higher powered the uniform. Called goku uniforms, they are made from a material called life fibers that enhance the user’s physical capabilities and give them special powers.Despite her conviction, Ryuko is easily defeated and sent packing with no answers.
Going back to her father’s home lost in thought, Ryuko is sent down a trap door into an underground lab beneath the ruins of the burnt up house. There, she hears a sound and is attacked by what appears to be a sailor’s school uniform. The outfit attached itself to her, revealing it can help her fight. The next day she shows up at the school once again, challenging them once again. This time however the new uniform (called a kamui) transforms into a revealing outfit that powers her up, allowing her to easily defeat the boxing club captain that had given her problems before.
Unfortunately, before Ryuko can confront the leaders of the school, student council president Satsuki and her elite four, she finds out she’s lost a lot of blood, which her kamui needs to work. Retreating, she ends up staying with a girl she saved at the school, a no star student named Mako, as well as her family. Ryuko starts to attend Honnoji academy to find her answers, vowing to beat it out of Satsuki, even if she has to go through the entire student body to do so.
Things aren’t that easy though. Satsuki won’t face Ryuko until she’s bested the elite four, all three star students with powerful goku uniforms, not to mention the fact that every club captain in the school is out to get her. Ryuko also has to learn how best to use Senketsu (the name she gave her sentient kamui), too embarrassed because of how revealing the outfit is to fight and synchronize with him properly. Still, Satsuki teases a hint that she knows about the scissor blade and who killed Ryuko’s father, making her all the more determined to find a way to win, finding the answers she seeks.
Kill la Kill is barely a year old, the newest anime I own, and still new enough that it’s available for streaming on more than one TV streaming service (Hulu, Crunchyroll, etc). For those interested in the show, that’d likely be easier since the show is still quite expensive to collect on blu-ray and dvd. That said, this is the first review I watched exclusively in blu-ray HD, and it was really a stunning show to watch visually. I plan on watching more collections in blu-ray as I can, especially if they’re all such stunning quality. The show is a very visual and artsy show all the same, so the DVD or streaming has to be plenty beautiful as well.
The show really works off two different parts that make it memorable though, even over the out there visuals. The first is the voice work. As always, I watched the English dub, but saw parts in the original Japanese as well. Both sets of voice actors seemed to do wonderfully with the parts they were given. The second part that makes the series special is the music, an eclectic mix of heavy electronic rave, stirring vocal pieces, deeper classical tracks that soar, and all of them fitting the characters and scenes they accompany perfectly. Seriously, look up the Kill la Kill soundtrack on YouTube.
All that said, I went into Kill la Kill with high expectations since it’s my sort of anime. I’m not sure it met my expectations fully, though I can’t point to anything and say it was the cause. Even the ending was better than your average anime, none of the characters seemed bad (though a few lacked the depth of others), and the pace kept things from feeling dull or stagnant. Some might complain about the kamui outfits, but the entire cast ends up getting into a bit of revealing, and all of it ends up being tongue in cheek.
At the end of the day, Kill la Kill is over the top, humor filled, action packed, bass thumping ride of an anime, and one that is well worth a watch, no matter how you do it.
This is a three part review for the Tekkaman series. I will be going chronologically for how I watched it, more or less, dividing up each series for a normal review, then do an over all impression at the end.
Tekkaman Blade (aka, Teknoman)
Published: 92 (JP), 07 (US)
Episodes: 49
Sometime in the future, Earth is united by on force. Technology has progressed to the point that humanity has built a space station ring around the entire Earth as a launching point into space. Despite all the progress humanity had made however, both technologically and politically, no one was prepared when the Radam invaded. A race of bugs and plants, the aliens quickly take control of most of the orbital ring before raining huge spore plants and bug monsters down onto the Earth. The aliens are supported by armored humanoids called Tekkamen, vicious fighters that can take on entire fleets without taking damage.
Things take a turn when a Tekkaman crashes to the Earth and is discovered by two members of the Space Knights, a group of freedom fighters set to oppose the Radam and save earth. Star (Aki) and Ringo (Noal) drag the Tekkaman back to their base. After misunderstandings, the man steals the Blue Earth, the Space Knights space ship, flying into space to continue the fight against Tekkaman Dagger. After transforming into a Tekkaman before both Star and Ringo’s eyes, he defeats Dagger, then joins the Blue Earth in returning to the Space Knight’s base. Once the group returns, the Tekknoman reveals his name to be Blade (D-Boy), though he doesn’t remember how he got his powers, nor what his real name even is.
The other members of the base end up welcoming Blade all the same and try to have him become a Space Knight. The base consists of Maggie (Levin) the mechanic programmer, Mac (Honda) the chief mechanic, Jamison (Heinrich) the commander, and Tina (Milly) the communications officer, along with a lot of staff and soldiers running around. For the Radam, none of the plants or bug creatures have any names or personalities, only the Tekkamen. Even after Dagger’s defeat, more Tekkamen appear, all tremendously powerful and all with the goal of destroying humanity, though towards what goal remains a mystery. Only Tekkaman Blade can hope to defeat them all, with the Space Knight’s help… but can he do it?
Teknoman is the highly edited English dub version of the original Tekkaman Blade released for American audiences originally in the 90s. Not only were most of the names changed for the release, from the people to even the name of the series, but scenes were edited, genders changed (Maggie was originally a man in the Japanese release), and dialogue heavily modified (more than just reinterpreted for English). While the series was left on its own, unlike the mashed together Voltron and Robotech series of the 80s, it shares a lot in common with those series with its amount of changes to accommodate what it was though an American audience wanted. This ends up making the series feel much more Saturday morning cartoon than a lot of animes, despite the mostly intact story and sense of consequence the series has. This is especially true from the dialogue and characters; Honda’s change to Mac makes him Scottish for no reason, Levin’s change to a woman is made to avoid showing a homosexual character to a 90s anime audience, and all of the dialogue is so full of puns, cheesy one liners, and smarmy American lines that it feels like a more adult G.I. Joe.
All that said, Teknoman isn’t bad. The original Japanese Tekkaman Blade survives enough within the edit to not make things too strange, while the art is well done for a 90s anime, the music isn’t bad, and the characters are at least interesting. With the eye rolling cheesy nature of the dub and edit, and with an ending that is poorly resolved (especially for a 49 episode series), there’s a lot left to be desired however, and even with some enjoyment to it, it’s not a surprise that Tekkaman Blade, and especially Teknoman, are lesser known series.
Perhaps the ending problem could be resolved with a sequel?
Tekkaman Blade II
Released: 93 (JP), 12 (US)
Episodes: 6
It’s been 10 years since the war with the Radam. Humanity has taken the technology of making Tekkamen from the Radam and started to train their own squad of Tekkamen to fight the Radam should they return. Tekkaman Blade has disappeared, presumed dead, and Aki has become commander of the Space Knights organization, joined by Honda. David, a young playboy, and Natasha, a hot headed red head, fill the first two vacancies for Tekkamen, soon followed by a ditzy young mechanic girl named Yumi. While Yumi starts off having troubles, the three have little time to acclimate themselves to each other as the Radam appear and seem ready to destroy Earth once more. Only by working together do the three hold back the Radam, even if Yumi takes out a part of the Space Ring in the process.
Things go better when D-Boy appears again, as well as Tekkaman Blade, but when he’s defeated it seems there’s more troubles than just the Radam this time. A rogue Tekkaman seems to want D-Boy and Aki both dead, but can anyone stop him? Why does he want them both dead so badly? Will the three new Tekkamen be able to fight this new Tekkaman while still stopping the Radam?
A short OAV sequel to the original Tekkaman Blade, Tekkaman Blade II was translated over a lot later than its predecessor, a fact that not only shows through in the title (the US release was called Tekkaman Blade II, not Teknoman II), but also using all the original Japanese character names, as well as keeping the editing to a minimum. While those can all be considered positive things as far as anime integrity goes, it means any US anime watchers will be thrown for a bit of a loop without understanding the change.
Still, as long as the series is good, changing things around shouldn’t be a big deal… is what I would say if Tekkaman Blade II were good. In truth, the OAV sequel to Tekkaman Blade adds very little to the Blade series, nor does it really stand up very well on its own. As a tie in to Blade 1, there are a ton of unanswered questions about returning characters (not to mention those that didn’t return). On its own, the new characters are functional at best, the Radam hardly pose as big a threat, and the entire plot (as well as the ending) just serve to perpetuate more loose story threads, leaving them (along with the loose story threads from Blade 1) hanging without real explination or resolution.
With that said, if you find a package that has both Blade 1 and Blade 2, there’s not much reason not to watch the quick 6 episode Tekkaman Blade II after watching the original, especially if you see the unedited Japanese original, since Blade 2 more closely follows that editing. It’s just more plot without much interest, but it’s a fresh tale that mixes up things a bit, ads new characters, and at least tries to be suspenseful. If you can’t find a package deal… then I wouldn’t try super hard to get this small ad on package.
Of course, if the Tekkaman Blade series isn’t your thing… well, let’s travel back in time. No, WAY back…
Space Knight Tekkaman
Published: 75 (JP), Various (US)
Episodes: 26
Sometime in the future, the Earth is doomed. In 3 years time, the Earth will be destroyed because of the pollution that mankind has done to it. Animals are already all but extinct, the oceans filled with pollution, the air dirty, and the plants dead or dying. The Green Earth project is created, dedicated to finding a Second Earth, a world where mankind can move to and live out its life in peace.
Things don’t go as planned however. As a ship is traveling out of the solar system to start its journey looking for a new planet, an alien race appears and destroys it. Calling themselves the Waldaster (or Gander, it’s interchangeable), this group of aliens conquered under one banner seeks out the Earth, wishing to destroy humanity to make the Earth its own for mysterious reasons. Thankfully, Dr. Amachi of the Space Agency has created Pegas, a giant robot with the capability of the Tek-set System, designed to turn the right candidate into a Tekkaman, a super human. Young Joji rushes to make the change without testing when the Gander reach Earth, successfully making the change into the Tekkaman and sending the initial wave of Waldaster ships off.
Despite the strength of Tekkaman, the Earth is hard pressed. Dr. Amachi forms the Space Knights to protect the Earth and find the Second Earth. Joji is joined by Dr. Amachi’s daughter Hiromi, as well as two aliens from the planet Sanno, who have been forced to Earth because of the war. Mutan is a young mutant who was captured and forced to fight in a giant robot, later helping the group with his keen hearing, smell, and laser eyes. Andro on the other hand looks like an Earthling, and he crashed to Earth on accident. Even though he keeps seeking a way home, he decides to help out the Space Knights for the time being.
The Waldaster’s leader, Dobrai, becomes more and more agitated at his lieutenant in charge or the Earth attack, Rambos, who keeps coming up with more and more devious plans to get the Earthlings and stop Tekkaman from foiling his plans. Rambos’ plans are hard enough to keep up with, leaving little time for the Blue Earth and its Space Knight crew to search for the Second Earth. Will they have time? Will Earth be doomed? Will Andro and Mutan even return to Sanno and free it from the Gander?
Space Knight Tekkaman was originally dubbed in the 80s with some editting, but the production crew only got about half the episodes done before stopping. VHS copies were made of the dub, as well as 2 compiled 90 minute movies, though no iteration of the series took off in the United States. In truth, the copy I found (labeled Tekkaman the Space Knight) was all japanese text on the box with poorly done English subtitles only, a version I’m uncertain of its release (it could be an original Japanese release with English subbing, but I can’t say). Regardless, the point is that Space Knight Tekkaman is very difficult to find outside Japan.
It’s sad that that’s how it is in my opinion. While the series ends without resolution because of the show’s cancellation before it was finished, and while the poor subtitles and strange 70s plot devices can be boggling (such as their idea of deep space… trust me, it’s out there), the series overall was my favorite of the Tekkamen series. The cheesy music, the campy plots, the weird sound effects and crazy plot took the series to an almost B movie level of unintended laughs while still maintaining a coherent plot that was fairly interesting. Despite being by far the oldest anime I’ve reviewed so far, it’s still something that’s watchable in an oddly fascinating way.
So, looking at all 3 Tekkaman… as an overall series, it’s easy to see why Tekkaman is the lost child of old sci-fi series. While all 3 series have interesting ideas, none of them beat out the series that were made around them (such as Macross, GoLion, and later on Gundam). Space Knight Tekkaman was the only one I would highly recommend, though you have to look hard to get it, and be willing to sit through strange plots and bad subtitles. Despite those, it holds the most interest because of it’s unique look at sci-fi because of its age. I would watch all 3 again, even if they weren’t the best sci-fi series out there, and I’d still say they’re worth watching. Just don’t expect dark horse candidates for your favorite series.
Thousand Years of Darkness Anime Reviews 