ThatJazzyGuy's Blog

Anime Relations: FLCL, Street Fighter Zero The Animation, Dragon Ball GT: Gokuu Gaiden! Yuuki no Akashi wa Suushinchuu, Lost Universe, Lupin III: Lupin Ansatsu Shirei, 009-1, Sonic X, Ayane-chan High Kick!, Highschool of the Dead, Tekken: Blood Vengeance

#10 Dragon Ball GT: A Hero's Legacy

The story takes place 100 years after the events of Dragonball GT, with the only surviving member of the Dragonball GT cast being Pan, and Goku Jr., a direct descendant of Goku; who saved the Earth many years before. Goku Jr. on the other hand, is nothing like his ancestor Goku, Goku Jr. is shy, and 'weak'. When Goku Jr.'s grandmother Pan becomes ill, Goku Jr., and along with his pal Pack, are off on an adventure to find the Four Star Dragonball, which Goku Jr. hopes will summon the dragon, and then he'll wish for his grandmother to get better.

The main thing that strikes me as odd in this special, is why in the world does it take place 100 years after the events of Dragon Ball GT? Wouldn't that make Pan 115 years-old or something? Another thing that bothers me is Goku Jr., he's supposed to be the descendant of Goku, the man everyone could count on, yet Goku Jr. has absolutely no confidence in himself, and cowers in fear when Pack (his bully, later friend) bullies him, I'm pretty sure Goku Jr. knows he has hidden potential, especially knowing he's the great-great-great-etc. grandson of The Legendary Goku. This story is a rather weak one, at least in Dragonball GT, there were some awesome arcs, like the Baby Vegata, Super 17, and Shadow Dragons arc, here, pretty much nothing happens. Goku Jr. goes on a very long journey, and fights off generic wannabe-villains, and eventually does find the Four Star Dragon ball. The only thing I got out of this movie, was the actual appearance of Goku himself, I'd admit that was pretty darn cool. In the end Grandma Pan gets better, and Goku Jr. learns self-confidence and enters the World Martial Arts Tournament, and faces off with Vegeta Jr. in the finals. All in all, I was rather disappointed in this one, I'll stick with Dragonball GT if I want more action. To me, Dragonball GT: A Hero's Legacy is the weakest Dragonball experience ever.



#9 Tekken: Blood Vengeance

*This story takes place between Tekken 5 and Tekken 6*
Ling Xiaoyu, would seem to be your everyday teenager, going to high school, having big dreams, the usual mindset of any teen. Ling Xiaoyu on the other hand, is quite a skilled martial artist, and has a pet Panda coincidentally named, Panda. One day, Ling Xiaoyu runs into Alisa Bosconovitch, a new student at Xiaoyu's high school, and instantly become friends. There is a dark side to this story, as Anna Williams, uses Xiaoyu to keep tabs on a young man named Shin Kamiya, a mysterious youth who has no idea what his purpose is. Jin Kazama is also looking for Kamiya, for his own purposes, and sends out Alisa to gather information on him. Little did they both know at the time, Alisa and Xiaoyu had no idea they were working on the same mission.

This movie showed promise at the beginning, with lovely Anna Williams and her sister Nina Williams fight in an extreme street fight, with explosions and everything. That would be the highlight of the entire movie for me, cause we never see that re-match to that fight ever again. Now it starts to go down hill from here, and just before I go on, I know of Tekken a lot to know when it's taking it's attempt at humor, and it doesn't fail, as long as it's and ending cinematic in one of the Tekken games. As for a movie though, it doesn't work at all, for example, Xiaoyu is introduced riding her pet Panda, at ridiculous speeds. Moving along, this story is pretty much about Xiaoyu and Alisa's friendship and hardships. I like to think this is what Katsuhiro Harada vision of Tekken would be on film. To it's credit though, I will say when the fight scenes did appear, they were all awesome, all for the final fight, being Super Devil Jin, Super Devil Kazuya and Mokujin Heihachi fighting it out, that was just too silly. Loved this movie for it's fights, but story is just beyond stupid, sorry Harada, but your vision of a Tekken movie is not mine.



#8 Ayane's High Kick

Ayane Mitsui is a young high school student, and has one dream in life, to become a pro wrestler. While Ayane's in the ring with an opponent, a trainer see's her potential, and decides he'd like to get her out of wrestling, and instead focus on Kick Boxing. There's one problem though, Ayane hates Kick Boxing. The trainer ends up tricking Ayane into learning Kick boxing, and instead of giving it up on it, Ayane decides to stick with it. Thus the story begins.

How do you fit such a premise into only 2 OVA episodes, being 30 minutes each? All I can say it doesn't work out very well, at all. In the first episode, at the conclusion at least, Ayane doesn't so much honestly win her fight, as much as she just got a lucky hit in at the last minute. Another plot-point which should be noted is that Ayane's school doesn't approve of her Kick Boxing, which comes to a pass. If Ayane wins her next match, she can continue her Kick Boxing, if she fails to win her match though, she is expelled from her school. Training montages are key, and are the only moments when I show any involvement in this title. Episode 1 ends with one female fighter named Sakurako Miyagawa, who is enraged with Ayane's 'false' win, and vows to take revenge on her. A few filler scenes, a few training montages later, we get to the main event match up between Ayane and Sakurako. No surprise here, Ayane is getting pulverized in the beginning, and alls not looking good. However one lucky break leads to victory for Ayane, and she delivers one hard high kick to Sakurako's head. Thus the story ends with Ayane and her friend Kayoko looking towards their future, with the Trainer in toe bothering Ayane to continue her Kick Boxing career, which Ayane wants no more of. Alls I can say is, Ayane's High Kick was a really uninspired anime, with no real heart at all.



#7 Lost Universe

From the creator of Slayers, comes the sci-fi comedy Lost Universe, a group of ragtag space travelers who are on a mission. Kane Blueriver, this story's main hero, a young captain of his ship Sword Breaker, has a fascination with capes, and never goes without one. Kane is on a mission to avenge the death of his Grandmother. Millennium "Millie" Feria Nocturne, she's a spunky young woman, and an excellent sharpshooter, and happens to be a great cook too, even if the ship's kitchen is destroyed in the process, her food is to die for. Canal Vorfeed, the ship's main computer, when she needs to talk to her members she uses a hologram image, and appears as a young teenage girl. Canal is a total weapon maniac, always looking for new guns to buy. This is a story of epic space proportions!

How could this have happened? From the creator of Slayers, one of my all-time favorite anime series, come up with this piece of trash? The premise seemed ok to begin with, "Slayers in Space" type thing, yeah I was all over it. Never have I been so mislead as I have with this title. The comedy is dull and tired, the voice-acting is weak and has no life in it, and the characters themselves, is really hard to really care what they're doing. Although when something does strike me as funny in this series, it's not because it's intentionally funny, it's because of how stupid it is. One thing that will guarantee a laugh out of me, just saying it out loud, 'Chicken Earth' gets a laugh out of me every time... Not cause it's funny, because it's so darn idiotic! All in all, this series was a total disappointment.



#6 - High School of the Dead

Takashi Komuro is a young high school student, and just so happens to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time when a zombie apocalypse breaks out. Now he a few classmates and teachers are fleeing for their lives, trying to survive this hell on Earth.

The main draw for this series, is pretty much just boobies, that's it. This poor excuse for a anime series brings it in plenty too, nothing but fan-service everywhere. Thighs, Ass, Breasts, oh my! With me though, it's annoying as hell. I don't mind fan-service like this, as long as it's not the main draw of the show. So yeah, that's what the show's main feature is. That aside, the characters themselves are all, pretty hateful, they all share the same personality, that being complete a-holes. Sure there is a zombie apocalypse happening, but would it hurt to crack a smile once in a while? Oh well, this show is nothing but sex and zombies, which is so damn annoying to watch. I will say one thing, I do like one character, that being the ditsy school nurse, Shizuka Marikawa, she's hot, and she has the biggest boobies, therefore she wins! if I ever complete this series, It'll be because of Shizuka the hot Nurse. That a side, this show is not worth my time.



#5 Lupin the 3rd: Voyage to Danger

Lupin the 3rd: Voyage to Danger, also known as Lupin III: Orders to Assassinate Lupin is the fifth Lupin special to air in Japan, and aired July 7th, 1993. The story is as follows, Inspector Zenigata is taken off the Lupin case, due to countless failures to try and capture him. Depressed, Inspector Zenigata starts drinking, knowing that a much more ruthless man is on the Lupin case, a man named Keith will do what it takes to take down Lupin, dead or alive.

What is best, can also be the worst, which fits the mantra perfectly for this one. Seeing how Lupin III is one of my all time favorite series, I have no doubt in my mind, that Lupin the 3rd: Voyage to Danger is the absolute worst adventure to come from our favorite thief. This special is about 1 hour, and 30 minutes, give or take, and the pacing is unbelievably slow, and tired. To me, there is almost nothing to take out of this special, Jigen looks like he's been sucking on a lemon for too long, as his face looks shriveled up, and Lupin himself just doesn't seem that into this one. Pretty much this special is about Jigen and a woman named Karen. Jigen ends up killing Karen's father, and naturally Karen now wants revenge for her father's death. Karen is keeping a low profile, waiting for the opportune moment to catch Jigen off guard, so she can kill him. Though when the moment arises she can't be able to do so. In the end, everything is settled, Karen is killed in the crossfire and Jigen is saddened by this, but all in all the evil threat is gone now too. Single handedly the worst Lupin special I ever had the displeasure of seeing. Very long, and very boring, Lupin the 3rd: Voyage to Danger is something I won't miss.



#4 Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie

Ryu's the current Street Fighter champion, but something's troubling him, the 'Dark Hadou' is slowly consuming him. If that's not enough, there is this young boy named Shun who claims that Ryu is his long lost older-brother. With a recognizable cast of Street Fighters, such as Ken, Chun-Li, Zangief, as well with Street Fighter Alpha's Adon, Cody & Guy, Birdie, and then some, this proves to be the greatest clash of Street Fighter's this century. Street Fighter Alpha, let's go for broke!

Where do I begin, guess I should start with my initial first viewing of this. When I first watched this, ages ago, I thought it was pretty darn good. However when I watched it again, I realized just how stupid, and long it is (a few years later after my initial viewing). This 1 hour and 30 minute feature is horrible, full of absurdities that will baffle the mind. Starts out easily enough with Ryu & Ken getting ready for the Street Fighter Tournament, and then a little boy comes along, claiming to be Ryu's younger brother. This immediately points out problem number one, Ryu never once mentioned he had a younger brother in any of the Street Fighter games. This anime movie is from the same minds who brought us the Street Fighter games, so would this count as canon? I don't know, all I can say is that the closest thing Ryu ever had to a relative was Makoto, as she was supposed to be Ryu's younger sister in early development of Street Fighter III, but that was changed prior to Street Fighter III being released. By the way, M. Bison is nowhere to be seen in this anime, not once is he mentioned. The main villain in this is Dr. Sadler, who is not even in any Street Fighter games. Well, Ryu, Ken, and Shun train, go through epic battles, and eventually Shun starts lashing out. Near the end, Ryu is confronted by a evil Rosanov (a villain I don't need to go into much detail prior) who then absorbed Shun and is now apart of Rosanov, to make a Rosanov/Shun hybrid, a RosaShunov if you will. Anyway moving along, Rosanov is defeated, and Shun dies. Ryu learns to never use the Dark Hadou ever again. The end.

This had to be one of the more painful watches in my anime-watching career, it's long, stupid, and full of fan-fiction. Even as I was writing this, it opened the floodgates of Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation stupidity. I do believe Dudley said it best, this movie here, is nothing but 'Gutter Trash'.



# 3 Sonic X

Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest hedgehog ever, is out to conquer Dr. Eggman, and spoil his schemes once and for all. However, Sonic unaware that Dr. Eggman has collected the 7 Chaos Emeralds, which Dr. Eggman uses to transport Sonic to a different world, this has one drawback though, Dr. Eggman is sent along with him. Now both Sonic and Dr. Eggman are on Earth, a planet populated by a race called humans. With familiar faces, Sonic, along with new friend Christopher Thorndyke and company are up for a grand adventure, as they search Earth for the 7 Chaos Emeralds, so they can make it back to their own world.

I know, I know, this is supposed to be intended for kids, but as a Sonic fan, I cannot let this go idly by. Let's take the already gigantic cast from the Sonic universe, and put them in a foreign landscape with humans. The cast is now uncountable, not to mention new characters to be introduced later on in this series. As you can see, the image I used for this Sonic X series features Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails. In normal circumstances, that would be enough, like in the 90's, having the best Sonic games then, Sonic 1, 2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles, endless hours of entertainment for me as a youth. Anyway moving on, the newer games introduced new characters, after new characters, and the majority of the new Sonic characters appear in the Sonix X series, and some who weren't even in a Sonic game prior, are introduced as well. The main problem is, if you hadn't played the newer Sonic games, like me for instance, haven't played Sonic Adventure (I have since played it now though, and completed it) and Sonic Adventure 2. New characters who I would normally be unfamiliar with. But to be completely fair, the Sonic Adventure series is the only series I seemed to miss out on when it comes to Sonic games, because I didn't own a Sega Dreamcast to play said games. I am familiar with Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, and the newer Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) games. But the thing is, most of the characters in Sonic X features characters from the Adventure series, and proves a big problem. All in all, if I had more background on these characters, I'd be more inclined to watch. Although, I think, especially now it'll be impossible for me to watch Sonic X, as I am not the Sonic fan I used to be.



#2 FLCL

FLCL revolves around a 12-year-old boy named Naota Nandaba. Naota is pretty much bored with everyday life, often saying nothing exciting ever happens in his town of Mabase, that is until he is literally run over by a girl who'd change his life forever, one named Haruharu Haruko.

Normally I'm up for marathoning pretty much any anime, and this case was no exception. However this was one case, where pacing myself would've helped a lot. By the end of this 6-episode OVA series, I was so totally brain-dead, I didn't even bothing watching anything anime related the day after. I know for a fact had this been more spliced up into let's say, three parts viewing, I probably wouldn't be so indifferent about it. Chances you've all ready seen this by now, it's kind of hard to imagine who hasn't seen FLCL by now, so there's no need to go into much detail. All you have to know is, this was THE most random show I have ever watched in my life. Has no subtlety at all, a loud and incredibly obnoxious viewing experience, FLCL is definitely something to behold, and is beyond the realm of reality, something I won't soon forget.



#1 009-1

In a world where the Cold War has never ended, 009-1 is about Mylene Hoffman; a female cyborg, along with her fellow agents, try and stop the two sides, East and West from destroying the world with nuclear weapons.

What do you get when you combine the awesome elements of both James Bond, and Charlie's Angels? A surprisingly dull and boring anime, that's what. Sure, the premise seems awesome enough, a world where the Cold War still rages on, and secret agents on secret missions, yeah seems cool enough right? Unfortunatly that is not the case for this series, the pacing is unbelieveably slow, and incredibly boring. I have only seen 6 out of this 12 episode series (there is a extra episode, rounding off the total episode count to 13), and I decided I couldn't take anymore. I personally think that the payoff at the very end isn't worth the 5 episodes it takes to get there. I mean at least FLCL had the elements to keep me engrossed in it, this series, has none of that. Sure there is fan-service in 009-1, but it doesn't help when you got one hot lady nude, only to look at a very ugly male character design right after. That's another thing I almost forgot to mention, the ladies themselves are sexy enough, but majority of the male characters are quite frankly, ugly. The soundtrack is probably the only thing to keep me watching this series till now that is, awesome jazzy-secret agent tunes all throughout. But that alone is not enough for me to watch anymore. To end, 009-1 is the absolute worst viewing experience for me. Overall slow, dull, and repetitive, 009-1 is the most boring anime series I have ever watched, and will probably never see again.