Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 12:08:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Phil Lee To: Carolina Otaku Uprising Subject: [coup] Re: Summer Schedule Fun! [...] *pop* You rang? > Regular Series: Sadamitsu and Figure 17 We've already shown a few episodes of each, but I figure a quick recap is in order: Sadamitsu is the finest TV show to come out of Japan since Black Heaven. It's about our high-school thug hero, clad in white hakama, boots, and a long coat with the name of his gang on the back in gold kanji. One day, while he and his fellow punks are dispensing a bit of justice, a robot chasing a nasty alien critter falls out of the sky. In the ensuing hijinx, the robot gets decapitated, Sadamitsu vows to help defeat the aliens, the robot head becomes a helmet - and Sadamitsu puts it on to become a power-armed bad-ass, still wearing his gang finery and weilding his mighty boken. Did I mention the school nurse with lab coat, miniskirt and glasses? Did I mention the mariachi music? Bow down before the might of Sadamitsu! We've already seen 1-3, but we're going to show 'em again, along with 7-10. Oh, yeah. Figure 17 was an oddity in Japan; instead of 25 minute weekly episodes, one double-length episode aired once a month. Set in Hokkaido, it's about a little girl who lives a quiet life with her father, who bailed on the life of a Tokyo salaryman to become a baker in the boonies. That's when the bishounen alien cop tracking down nasty critters from space shows up and his secret weapon joins with the little girl to create a perky clone of herself that she can merge with to become a bad-ass female warrior. Aside from that, however, the show is really, really mellow. Great stuff. > May 20: Galaxy Express 999 first movie, Sadamitsu 1 Galaxy Express is Matsumoto Reiji's classic space fantasy, about a mysterious blonde woman (with hair down to her ankles in traditional Matsumoto style) who rescuses a young boy from the slums of a futuristic Earth and gives him a ticket to board the Galaxy Express 999, a train that travels across the galaxy. A beautiful coming of age story about the importance of humanity. And, if that doesn't draw you in, it guest stars Captain Harlock. Oh, yeah. > May 27: GitS Stand-Alone 7, Patlabor 11, Angelic Layer, Sadamitsu 2, F17 5 > June 3: GitS 8, Patlabor 12, Angelic Layer, S 3, F17 6 You all know and love Ghost in the Shell. We'll be showing a random action episode, two Laughing Man plot episodes, and the all-powerful Tachikoma episode. You should all know and love Patlabor. On the off-chance you don't, it's the story of the misfit police unit SV2, assigned to pilot giant police robots to deal with other giant robots. Patlabor may well have the most beloved cast in all of anime, and it's pleasant to watch a series where the mecha are basically treated like cop cars instead of sacred instruments of wonder and power. Expect plenty of wacky hijinx, fun advenutres and top notch characterizaiton. Finally, Angelic Layer is basically CLAMP does Pokemon. Someone who is actually a fan of the show is probably better off describing it, but you get the idea. Mo will tailor pick a couple of particularly good episodes, so if you want your shoujo cock fighting fix, come check it out. No, Conni, not that kind of shoujo cock fighting. > June 10: GitS 11, Patlabor 13, Gals!, S 4, F17 7 > June 17: GitS 12, Patlabor 14, Gals!, S 5, F17 8 And, to balance out the shounen SF, we've got a couple more episodes of Super GALS!, all about Kotobuki Ran and her hyper-trendy friends as they rampage across the Shibuya district of Tokyo. Everybody! Do the monkey with me! > June 24: Shin Aim For the Ace! movie (riz-aw), S 6, F17 9 Everyone should remember the 70s shoujo pyschadelic tennis action of Aim for the Ace! from the beginning of the fall semester. For those of you who were begging for more, here's your fix. The original Ace series was re-made as Shin Aim for the Ace!, which was itself condensed into a compilation movie, which is what we'll be watching. The whole story crammed into two hours, complete with hardcore tennis action, ultra-bitches and the god-like power of the Coach. It's not subtitled, but trust me, you don't really need them to know what's happening. Worth watching if only for the arcade scene where Hiromi plays Breakout. > July 1: Overman King Gainer 3, Shin-Chan, Azumanga Daioh, S 7, F17 10 > July 8: Overman King Gainer 4, Shin-Chan, Azumanga Daioh, S 8, F17 11 > July 15: Overman King Gainer 5, Shin-Chan, Azumanga Daioh, S 9, F17 12 For those of you who forgot: - Overman King Gainer is the wacky show featuring a giant robot with dreads where everyone does the monkey during the opening credits. - Crayon Shin-chan is the wacky show with the hot Zou-san and Buri Buri action. - Azumanga Daioh is the wacky show with the class of girls and no real plot per se. You know, the one everyone riots during. This will be a truly powerful three weeks of cartoon action. > July 22: Mazinger Something or Other, Ebichu, S 10, F17 13 Someone requested Mazinger, so damn it, we're going to show Mazinger. I have no idea what, and I'm not promising subtitles, but we're going to show some Mazinger. Naturally, the only appropriate follow-up are obscene hamster jokes, courtesy of Ebichu. > July 29: Perfect Blue, maybe raw KKOW? Perfect Blue is the first film by the guy who did Millennium Actress. 'Nuff said. Okay, okay, it's about a pop star who decides to become an actress, at which point her life becomes very, very strange. This is much darker than Millennium Actress, with a few rather disturbing scenes and an increasingly loose grasp of reality as the film goes on. Needless to say, it's excellent and highly recommended. Finally, for those of you who know and love Kyo Kare Ore Wa (the series about the thugs who beat each other up, then beat other folks up, then cross-dress to facilitate beating people up), we're going to watch another episode of it. It won't be subtitled, but it's hardly necesssary to enjoy the wacky thug antics. "Why can't we be friends, why can't we be friends..." > mo, currently bludgeoning Nolan with awesome 70s prog rock Yes! Phil "No, really, Yes!" Lee