New Review: Fire Tripper
Just (finally) got Chainclaw’s take on Fire Tripper posted. It’s one of the classic Rumik World series of one-shots, which I remember always having on my “to get next time I put in an order” wish list back in the VHS era (Maris the Chojo in particular), but never got around to actually ordering.
Mermaid Forest (the old movie, not the newer TV series), another in the Rumik World series (and the only one available for rent where I live), was among my favorite films of the era, and this has rekindled my curiosity in the series. Time to track down a copy one way or another and see if I should be cursing the me of the past for missing good stuff.
A whole heap of other reviews from Chainclaw and Matt are still in the pipeline, plus several of my own suffering from can’t-quite-get-it-finished-itis.
June 29th, 2011 at 4:48 am
I’d check youtube before looking for old vhs copies. Youtube is a goldmine for unlicenced and/or out of print anime, both past and present. My reviews of Fire Tripper, Fushigi Yugi OVA 2, Mermaid Melody, Tokyo Mew Mew, and some reviews you havn’t posted yet all came from watching them on youtube.
June 29th, 2011 at 6:07 am
I think the only Rumik World anime I’ve seen is that Mermaid Forest feature. I don’t remember much about it aside from it having a darker look and serious tone that the Mermaid Scar OVA and Mermaid Forest TV series didn’t quite have. I miss those kind of one-shots in general; the OVA boom allowed a lot of interesting projects to be explored that wouldn’t have worked as TV series. Sure a whole lot of crap got made but even some of that can be worth watching in a certain light, such as the current Pick of the Week Black Lion.
The new ONA (Original Net Animation) format seems to be providing a new venue for one-shot projects to get made again, which I’m definitely all for. I tend to like experimental stuff.
June 29th, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Last Saturday night,I watched the premiere of “Durarara” on Adult Swim. I found it very strange. Not the least of which is a Black Russian hawking a Russian version of sushi in Japan. The guy kind of sticks out a bit. But then,he’d stick out if he were in the Brighton Beach area of New York also known as Little Odessa,because of it’s large Russian community or Harlem because of his Russian accent.
Also,it’s a bit unusual for me to see an Irish spirit riding around Tokyo. I don’t know the size of the Irish community in Japan but it’s probably not comparable to the Irish community in the U.S. I can imagine it motorcycling around New York,Boston,or Chicago,but Tokyo? It’s kind of weird for me thinking about people immigrating to Japan because the country doesn’t exactly stike me as an immigrant country.
I remember a clip of an episode of “Baa Baa Black Sheep” I’d seen in which a Japanese-American fighting for the Japanese sums up to me the view of how a lot of Japanese view foreigners living in their country. He said “You can live for years in America and be considered American. You can live for years in Japan and never be considered Japanese.” Even those who take Japanese citizenship are never fully considered Japanese no matter how long they live in their country. Unlike America,that you live here for a certain period of time and then take American citizenship,you are for all intents and purposes,American.
What do you guys think?
June 30th, 2011 at 10:10 am
So that means you have a list of “VHS era” OVAs – series that you will review in the future? That would be pretty interesting!
I will check the review of Fire Tripper now. Thanks for sharing! 😀
August 3rd, 2011 at 11:38 am
Recently,G4 has been broacasting anime versions of some of Marvel comics’ most famous characters like “Iron Man” and “Wolverine.” I also heard there might be two more in the making. I hope one of them is “Spider-Man.” They’ll probably have Peter Parker go to Japan as part of a study abroad program. But,he finds out about that his old enemy,Wilson Fisk AKA the Kingpin is also in Japan.
Fisk is meeting one of the most feared yakusa leaders in Japan,a man called the Shogun. Now the Shogun has a couple of interesting psychic powers. He can astro-project or send himself out of his body and he also has telekinetic powers. He’s also surrounded by an army of ninja. I hope they do an anime version of “Spider-Man.” What do you think?
August 4th, 2011 at 6:21 am
I’m a huge Spider-Man fan so yeah, I’d be all for an anime version. The premise you’ve laid out could certainly work as I think Spidey stories are best when he’s doing more down-to-earth things like fighting his rogues gallery and/or taking on the mob. The comics sometimes like putting him in space or other dimensions and I don’t always think those stories work as well.
August 4th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
I’ve been watching the series “Durarara” lately and I wonder something. I’d love to see them do something similar to this but have a couple of American exchange students as part of the cast. I hope they cast Yuri Lowenthal and Janice Kawaye as the exchange students,seeing they both speak Japanese and English.
They could get kidnapped by the kidnapper in “Durarara” but then get chewed out by their superiors for kidnapping Americans because that could bring down unnecessary trouble from not just the local authorities but also the U.S. Government as well. What do you think?