Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 16:07:57 -0500 (EST) From: Phil Lee Reply-To: Carolina Otaku Uprising To: Carolina Otaku Uprising Subject: [coup] Schedule Synopsis Re: spring semester schedule of doom! On Mon, 6 Jan 2003, Beth Mayo wrote: > And now the schedule for the semester - And some brief descriptions, in case you're wondering what the hell X title is: > Jan 14 - Macross: Do You Remember Love? Ah, DYRL. This is a theatrical re-telling of the original Macross series, which manages to cram all the really important details and a slightly modified storyline into not quite two hours. Transformable jet planes, love triangles, and the triumphant power of Japanese pop music are, as always, on the agenda. Yes, it's cheesy, but it's also tremendous fun, and the animation is astounding. And, DYRL offers enough background to apprecite a lot of the in-jokes in Macross 7 without having to sit down and watch all of the original series. > Jan 21 - Ghost in the Shell tv 1, Azumanga Daioh, Macross Zero 1 Macross Zero, on the other hand, is a brand new OVA series that is a prequel to the TV series. Our hero is a young fighter pilot shot down by a prototype Valkyrie and stranded on a rather mysterious island. It almost goes without saying that the animation is excellent. Oh, and it also features Roy Fokker, King of Men. 'Nuff said. There may be a few of you, like myself, who need to nod off and go to sleep for a bit when the words "Ghost in the Shell" are mentioned. Alternately, you may worship the ground GitS walks on and are concerned that someone is fucking with your beloved comic and/or movie. Both sides can relax - GitS:SAC kicks a lot of ass, capturing the flavor of the manga with lush animation and 25 minute episodes that don't give the audience a chance to pass out. You can all look forward to hardcore cyberpunk storylines with plenty of action, made spectacular by a particularly high budget. I expect this to go over like gangbusters. For those of you who missed Azumanga Daioh last semester, it's about the highly amusing slice-of-life antics of a bunch of high school girls. There's no storyline to speak of and the characters require no introduciton: just take it for granted that the show is a hoot and a half, show up and enjoy. > Jan 28 - Ghost in the Shell tv 2, Azumanga Daioh, Gundam Seed 1 Gundam Seed is the latest reinvention of the Gundam saga, a very loose re-telling of the original Gundam storyline, with slick animation and a large ensemble cast courtesy of the team that gave us Infinite Ryvius. The first few episodes give a hint of the intricate politics involved in teh show before jumping right into some rather nice giant robot action. And, yes, the theme song is by T.M. Revolution, which I know is enough to get some of you to sit down and give it a try. > Feb 4 - Ghost in the Shell tv 3, Fruits Basket, Gundam Seed 2 > Feb 11 - Ghost in the Shell tv 4, Fruits Basket, Gundam Seed 3 For those of you who missed the episode of Fruits Basket shown during It's Your Fault Night last semester, it's the story of a perky shoujo heroine who spends most of her time being utterly awe-struck by the horde of bishounen she's livng with - all of whom happen to change into cute animals. Someone who actually enjoys the show could probably give a better description, but if this sounds even vaguely appealing to you, chances are you'll love it. > Feb 18 - I Can Hear the Sea (Ghibli flick) We shouldn't have to say anything other than "Studio Ghibli" to ensure that everyone on this list shows up with all of their friends in tow. It's a drama about a high school love triangle and is, naturally, excellent. I Can Hear the Sea is also one of the few Ghibli movies not directed by Miyazaki or Takahata, and is instead by Tomomimi Mochizuki, who also directed Here is Greenwood. (If Greenwood doesn't mean anything ot you, be sure to attend the next Re-education Marathon.) > Feb 25 - Haibane Renmei 1, Mahou Yuugi, Shin-chan Everytime you even think the words Haibane Renmei, Heather starts jumping up and down and ranting about wings. Created by Yoshitoshi ABe (Lain, Niea_7), it's about the newest member of a group of young women in a strange place who all happen to have angel wings and halos. Laid back, lovely, and with enough wing action to satisfy even Ms. Walker. Admire the pretty pictures here: http://www.animeprojects.com/haibanerenmei/ I dunno anything about Mahou Yuugi personally, but Tim recommended it highly, so that's good enough for me. This is a one shot, entirely 3D OVA about a young girl who breaks out the magic powers by using a dead fish as a magic wand. No, this isn't Puni Puni Poemi. Stylish CG and wacky mahou shoujo antics? Sure, I'm up for that. Shin-chan, of course, refers to Crayon Shin-chan. If you haven't seen Crayon Shin-chan, your attendance is mandatory. If you have, you can join in with the rest of us in hollaring "Zou-san!" and "buri buri!" In fact, you can start right now. BURI BURI! BURI BURI! We'll be showing a random episode hand-picked by Paul for extra Shin-chan goodness. > Mar 4 - Haibane Renmei 2, Yojimbo, Guu Take the classic Kurosawa film Yojimbo, about a scruffy ronin who shows up in a town torn apart by rival gangs, animate it, and set it in modern Japan. Is the result any good? Who knows - none of us have seen it yet. But, we figure the concept is worth watching at least one episode. Guu refers to Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu, roughly "The jungle was quiet, then Guu came", which is almost all the description the show really needs. For those of you who missed our previous showings, it's about a kid named Hale who lives in a rather civilized jungle with his mom and the bizzare little girl who comes to live with them. By "bizzare" I mean "tends to swallow up anything and everything into her gaping maw, placing them in the pocket dimension inside of her". And that's jut the beginning. Highly amusing, deeply weird, and with a hellacious opening theme. > Mar 18 - Figure 17 3, Nanako SOS 1 > Mar 25 - Figure 17 4, Nanako SOS 2 Figure 17 is a particularly mellow series about a little girl who moved from Tokyo to Hokkaido when her father decided to become a baker. Things are extremely laid-back - until the bishounen alien bounty hunter shows up. Then things go back to being laid-back. Later, a perky alien symbiote clone of the little girl shows up. We dug the first two episodes so much that another two seemed in order. I know absolutely nothing about Nanako SOS, except that it's a classic shoujo series subtitled by the Anime Miners, the folks who gave us Tokimeki Tonight and the power of "Super Love Lotion". As far as I can tell it involves wacky 80s shoujo hijinx, which is all we needed to know. Here's a pic to give you an idea of the sort of show it'll probably be: http://www.animeminers.com/image/nanako-menu.jpg > Apr 1 - This is Otakudom, Jon Jon Junko-chan, and whatever weird shit we can > flog you with (Corn Pone!) The key word above is "flog". First, there's This is Otakudom, a fan dub that takes one of the Fushigi Yuugi OVAs and sends the entire cast to an anime con. While not quite up to the brilliance of Dirty Pair Does Dishes or Evangelion Re:Death, it's pretty damn amusing, even if Fuugi givs you the hives. Jan Jan Junko-chan! is raw distilled pain, courtesy of the retail chain Anime Jungle. Live-action footage of a cute Japanese woman in a maid outfit, animated segments of magical maid girl hijinx, geeky in-jokes, and an appearance by the long suffering Justin Buck create an experience so bad it's...well, bad, but kinda amusing at the same time. Don't say we didn't warn you. Finally, to top it off, we'll pop in whatever Hell fodder the club hasn't seen in a while. Feel the burn. > Apr 8 - Lupin ep #2 and the Lupin Return of Pike movie (subbed or raw, > dammit) Last semester, we were going to show the recent Lupin movie The Return of Pike, and dropped it at the last minute because we didn't have a sub. Later, we realized, "Wait a minute...this is Lupin. It's not that hard to follow". So, this time we're determined to show Return of Pike, subtitled or not; hopefully subbed, of course, but we'll take what we can get. And, time permitting, we'll have an encore showing of Pike's original appearance from 1971, to remind you of how cool he is. > Apr 15 - Minipato, SD Gundam, Super GALS Minipato is super deformed Patlabor, using CG to mimic cut-out animation in a highly amusing way. SD Goto! Alphonse the Phil-dog! Shige teaching you the history of giant robot animation! And more! And, if that isn't enough SD action for you, we've managed to track down a subtitled episode of SD Gundam, which should be equally silly and frentic. Finally, speaking of silly and frentic, everyone's favorite teenage fashion victims from Shibuya return for another episode of Super GALS. I expect each and every one of you to be in front of the room and doing the Monkey during the opening credits. > April 22 - Millenium Actress Finally, we have the second film by Satoshi Kon, who directed the fantastic sleeper anime thriller Perfect Blue. When a venerable film studio closes down, a documentary producer tracks down one of it's biggest stars, the reclusive Chiyoko Fujiwara and asks her to tell her life story. The result is a love story, told across time. Beautiful to behold and already a darling of the film festival circuit, I fully expect Millenium Actress to live up to Perfect Blue. Phil