Fantasy
Bytes 11/2 |
HUMOR OR SO |
| [Pic @ the logo: Yohji from Weiss Kreuz (Knight Hunters) © 1998 Animate Film, TV Tokyo. Designer Yanasawa Tetsuya, animator Yanasawa Tetsuya, director Egami Kiyoshi. Story about 4 daylight male florists who hunt for criminals at night. All titles are in German, nobody ever told why; I guess because ordinary English words could suddenly snatch some intimidating gothic grandeur once they are translated into German. But that's only a personal assumption. I am blessed with perfect illiteracy in both Japanese and German and the truth is I have been faking English. However, the twist I really like here is that the Weiss pack: Aya, Omi, Ken and Yoji, do to the bad guys what the bad guys have done to civilians who still be florists at night as they are by day, even if they might also know martial arts. This solution truly saves taxpayers' money. Anyway, the first series of Weiss Kreuz couldn't be spoken of in terms of visualization -- but the second, Weiss Kreuz Glühen, released in 2002-3, remakes the looks of everybody to the direction of visual overdressing -- but they do look good. And they still literally eliminate bad guys, too.] |
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Lina Inverse from The Slayers The unnecessarily overdressed sorceress Lina Inverse and her fan-servicingly underdressed sidekick/rival Nahga follow a smooth adventure story in this anime. The character drawing fits into the entire idea of overflowing fun and tireless reminder that this is just a fantasy realm, with dragons flying over shiny palaces and where income taxes don't come with additional headache in filling up stacks of questionnaires.
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The
Slayers © 1995 IG Film, SoftX,
TV Tokyo
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Vash
the Stampede
[front,
red coat] with guest-character This anime is a tragicomedy of some sort -- it all shows and centers in the leading character, Vash the Stampede -- a gun-concealing outlaw on the lam. At once ridiculously mushy and thoughtfully calm, totally careless and automatically helpful, manly and clownish, Vash gets his visualization faithful to his Self. It is an intricate fun-laden job well done, in a japonized Wild West style. Vash cannot exist in any other way. Trigun manga © 1998 Yasuhiro Nightow. Anime: produced by Mad House. Script by Kuroda Yosuke, designer Yoshimatsu Takahiro, animator Ohashi Yoshimitsu, music by Imahori Tsuneo, director: Satoshi Nishimura. © 1998 Yasuhiro Nightow, Shonen Gaho-Sha, Tokuma Shoten, JVC
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Excel
[the
girl] and
Menchi
Excel Saga © 2000 J.C. Staff, TV Tokyo. Script by Jigoku Kumi & Kuroda Yosuke, designer Ishino Satoshi, music by Masuda Toshio, directors Watanabe Shinichi, Nishiyama Akihiko, Fukuda Jun, Hoshikawa Takafumi, Ando Ken, Murata Masahiko. |
Sensitivity of timing, swift motions and breathless pace are all in Weird Anime Excel Saga. What takes a comedy to splash is there. Consequently, visual details are to be gotten elsewhere; the pictures employed in the anime are some sort of 'sketches'. But they serve their purpose. Perfectly.
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RainForestWind/AmeMoriKaze
Personal Homepages & Other Wastelands
© 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 NIN
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