Hello everyone, here I am writing an article based on what you the readers of this publication have asked me to give my honest opinions on. It’d be a bit silly if I decided to give you dishonest opinions of what you decided would be a good thing to write about so I’ll try to not tell any lies in this article.
I mean, I try my best not to lie in my articles anyway but this time I’ll be extra careful.
Let’s start this little adventure into what folks thought would be a good idea for me to write opinions about shall we.
If you want to give me more things to write about in future installments of this series, reply to this post on BlueSky and your topic will be talked about eventually!
#1 Doraemon
The first thing I need to look at is Doraemon. Let me just say this is certainly a big one for me to start on because I’ve actually watched quite a bit of Doraemon. First of all let me tell you all my opinion of Doraemon, the actual robot cat before we get into his lengthy escapades.
Compared to an actual domesticated cat, I don’t think Doraemon would be as good to keep as a pet.
First of all, you need to think of the maintenance and living expenses of keeping a robotic cat from the future in your home. Thankfully, he does eat food that humans eat so you don’t have to go out of your way to get Meowmix or whatever food you give your cat but when it comes to giving him treats you may be a bit out of luck, since his favourite food is dorayaki which outside of Japan is not really commonly sold in your local supermarket, let alone the off-licence.
Also don’t get me started on whether Doraemon would need repairs or servicing. You can’t take him to your local Toyota service centre. The mechanics there wouldn’t even know where to start! Though usually, Doraemon uses some sort of time travel to get back to the future in order to get someone to sort him out.
The convenience of having Doraemon as a companion is practically endless and with suitable amounts of prep time, Doraemon would outclass practically any foe that comes up against him. Doraemon’s biggest ability is in his 4D Pocket, which is where he stores all of his incredible items that allow Doraemon to achieve practically anything. Need to go somewhere really quickly? Well the Anywhere Door allows you to cover massive distances in no time at all! Need to fly somewhere? The Take-Copter will allow you to fly by just sticking one on your head. Need to understand people despite not speaking their language? Well Doraemon has some Konjac that’ll make you instantly speak and understand any language.
The techbros of the world could only dream of creating something with the versatility and convenience of Doraemon and knowing them, their poor interpretation would probably be another snake oil scheme.
So we’ve looked at why Doraemon, the legend himself, is an amazing feat of 24th Century engineering but we haven’t looked at the anime yet.
I’m going to be very honest here, I’ve not watched a single episode of Doraemon’s TV anime and with several thousand episodes, I doubt many of you will be tackling all of them any time soon. The major broadcasters of the UK didn’t license Doraemon while I was growing up, even though I bet it would have been epic with a British dub. So sadly, Doraemon mostly passed me by. The films on the other hand are a completely different story. Let me just give you the golden rule of anime films.
Every Doraemon Film is a Good Film
No matter what Doraemon does, no matter the subject matter. A Doraemon film will always be good at the very least. They’re always a fun time for the family, they’re a fun time if you’re watching them with your mates. You honestly can’t go wrong in picking any film that he’s been in for the last 45 years. In my early anime watching days, finding Doraemon films on sketchy websites and downloading them off MegaUpload was a regular thing for me, which does lead me onto the incredibly bad sub of Doraemon: Nobita and the Green Giant Legend (2008) which if I recall was a machine translation from Hindi into English. Good thing translations of officially licensed anime and manga these days are not free from these sorts of howlers eh?
So the big question is going to be what’s my pick for the best Doraemon film? My personal favourite would have to go to Doraemon: Nobita’s Dinosaur 2006 (2006) a film that remakes the first Doraemon film from 1980 and still stands the test of time as not only the one of the best Doraemon films, but one of the best anime films full stop. It’s a showcase of some of the biggest and brightest talent in the industry in the mid-00s. Directed by serial baseball anime lover Ayumu Watanabe, Nobita’s Dinosaur 2006 is a story of a boy and his baby dinosaur and a time travelling adventure that goes very very wrong. One thing will be very evident from the moment you start the film though, it just doesn’t stop moving. If it’s your first viewing, you’d probably not expect it to be quite as well produced for what is essentially the latest in a yearly franchise film series but Nobita’s Dinosaur 2006 is a step above even other Doraemon films, constantly exceeding your expectations.
I will say to anyone reading this, please watch a Doraemon film. You won’t be disappointed and at the very least, you’ll have a very good time!
#2 URAHARA
And so we get to the first of many things in this list of shows that I haven’t seen. URAHARA is one show that I probably should get round to one of these days (like a lot of shows that have passed me by over recent years). URAHARA is a show that whenever I saw screencaps of it screamed style and when I was looking into it more, it led me onto the portfolio of the Series Director and Character Designer, Amika Kubo. Kubo isn’t really a household name amongst anime fans and URAHARA is to this day, the only TV anime that she directed or even had any involvement in as she was more of an animator of short films and even TV idents!
I do love a good TV ident and Kubo’s ones definitely fit the bill as modern and having a stylish aesthetic. Definitely fitting the bill for a music channel or showing off the different things a satellite TV channel has on offer!
URAHARA, from what I’ve seen of it at least, definitely has a strong visual identity and gets the whole Harajuku fashion vibe. I also know a certain person who’s a massive fan of it and has been convincing people on and off for the last 8 years to watch it. I should probably make good on that and watch it some time soon~.
#3 The Amazing World of Gumball Series 4 Episode 37
I think I’ve only seen a couple of episodes of Gumball in my time. I remember watching an episode where the whole world ends up being sucked of colour and whimsy or something like that. Predictably, I haven’t gone out of my way to watch this episode of Gumball either sadly and maybe I should because from the couple of clips I did get to peep, it did seem pretty cool.
The thing that folks will probably latch onto is the animation assistance provided by Studio 4C for this episode, most notably the battle animation scenes animated by Medarot character designer Tokuyuki Matsutake. One of the writers on this episode, Ben Bocquelet, tried to get the attention of Studio TRIGGER by prodding Tattun on Twitter (not a particularly good idea to be honest). Though I think getting Matsutake was a pretty good deal all things considered, as he’s someone who gets simple designs working well for action animation, which you can definitely see in Medarot which ironically, Hiroyuki Imaishi (who they presumably originally wanted to animate for this episode) would end up making his episode direction debut on with Ep.14. Maybe Bocquelet saw the connection, who knows?
#4 Cory in the House
This is a show that I’ve never watched and until now, never actually knew the synopsis of. All I knew beforehand is that it was joked about by some anime fans as being an anime in its own right.
The title doesn’t seem particularly interesting to say the least. I mean, I’m writing this article from my house and I don’t get my own Disney Channel comedy series! Apparently this show is special because the house in question is the residence of the President of the United States. I guess this is why this series is special because my house is just a semi-detached house in Britain, while that house is a bit larger.
I would however argue that イエス・ミニスター (1980) is a far better comedy anime revolving around the escapades that could be had in the residence of an elected leader. For one, it actually is 3 cours, having precisely 38 episodes (with one being an hour long special). It also aired on BBC Two, which in my opinion is a much better TV channel than the Disney Channel.
#5 Sound of the Sky (Sora no Woto)
My first encounter with Sora no Woto can be traced all the way back in 2016 where it would routinely have the michael taken out of it by members of the “Sakuga Discord”, a place that doesn’t really exist all that much these days but was the haunt of many members of the Sakuga Cartel before everyone (including myself) would create their own influential little communities.
Sora no Woto was an infamous show and one that was regularly ragged on by the community and of course a certain infamous episode in the show would also regularly get mentioned but it wouldn’t be until many years later that in my own server’s groupwatch of it that I finally got to watch it for myself.
For one, I think public opinion of Sora no Woto has cooled down quite a bit over time which has led to it being seen a lot more positively these days. I enjoyed my time with it quite a bit, the Kalafina OP was catchy (and a lot less moody than their fare in Madoka) and despite the looming war in the background it was pretty slow and nice to watch each evening.
As for staff, Sora no Woto is directed by Mamoru Kanbe who is known by most people as the Elfen Lied director, though the real people know him as Cosmic Baton Girl: Comet-san director! Sora no Woto, while good, did not leave quite the lasting impact on me that Comet-san did. It also has Nami Miyahara in this speaking German, which she picked up when she was living in Salzburg along with English which I thought was pretty neat.
#6 Quattro Bajeena
First of all, this man is not an anime he is a CHAR. Second of all, I’ll gladly talk about my good mate Quattro Bajeena. He’s a bit of an oddball that one. One day he came to the local Job Centre looking for work, with his massive oversized shades (inside the building, may I add). He gets a job at a Tesco Express stacking shelves. The customers did think it was a bit strange seeing this 18 metre tall RMS-099 Rick Dias (would you believe me that I knew the model number off the top of my head) in the car park so he lost his job pretty quickly.
He was a bit depressed after all that because he really thought that he could “make a difference in this world”. He kept mentioning this Amuro bloke in his sleep. It was really sad.
It wasn’t until the Anti-Earth Union Group started up in Woking that things finally turned around for Quattro. He finally found purpose in life again. He regularly played checkers with the old folks, he told stories about the Great War to the kids (even though they weren’t really listening) and he even worked at the local soup kitchen all while never taking off his sunglasses.
I never really got the sunglasses you know.
#7 Shinryaku! Ika Musume!
Another show that I’ve seen! It might have only been a couple of episodes but I still remember it well! Got to get round to watching the whole thing eventually (this is going to be the theme of this article isn’t it).
The closest thing to Ika Musume that I’m very much familiar with is Keroro Gunso which happens to be my favourite anime. Yes, even with everything I’ve seen since. While Keroro was very much a satojun show, this was a Tsutomu Mizushima show. Mizushima, the comedic and theatrical genius with Haré+Guu and Girls und Panzer that he is, couldn’t possibly produce something with a synopsis like Ika Musume’s badly, so I can only imagine that it kept being good past what I watched all the way back when I was at that uni anime club.
Actually, this is probably a good time to mention that I’ve never played Splatoon either. It looks cool at least.
#8 Kasumin
Kasumin is a show that when I first found out about it, I couldn’t believe that such a production could have existed. A show picked up by naisho fansubs, who prioritised subbing very obscure and very good anime including Nandaka Velonica and Fushigi Mahou Fun Fun Pharmacy. Though I suppose that last one isn’t that obscure because esteemed University Challenge winner and esteemed anime knowledge fountain Jonathan Clements mentioned it once at Scotland Loves Anime with me in attendance. Honestly, I’m glad I was there so someone knew to cheer when our girl Potpourri is mentioned in a speech!
Anyway, Kasumin. A show that you can oddly watch in full HD and in widescreen! A show that aired in 2001. A show that was graced with impeccable character designs from Yoshihiko Umakoshi who already blessed the world with his work on Ojamajo Doremi decided that more excellent, weird and wacky critters needed to exist in this world.
Kasumin itself is a perfectly alright kids show and one that I’m sure many of us would like to watch in full but unfortunately, naisho fansubs went poof many years ago and while subbing efforts exist to bring the rest of the episodes in (mostly) all of their HD glory, it’s taking a very long time.
Perhaps one day I’ll finish watching Kasumin, I hope I’ll get to do it soon.
#9 The Brave Express: Might Gaine
Might Gaine is what I would like to call a “show that I keep almost watching”. I have watched a couple of other entries in the Brave Series including the most notable, The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar, a show where if you haven’t already considered going to Specsavers, it will ensure that you do.
I have had discussions with people saying that the strobe lighting that the evil Zonder does in the show is something that should be preserved. I think it needs to be consigned to the dustbin of history. There are some things that need to be preserved in anime. I think that keeping the original film grain of older shows is important and necessary, I think that some companies have employed some terrible digital processing techniques to ruin new releases of older shows. Though keeping around strobe lighting for the sole purpose of “preserving the original release” is absurd.
Oh yeah, GaoGaiGar is a very fun show by the way. Do recommend it! Just be sure not to watch the OP directly or pay any close attention to any scenes where the Zonder start having chats with each other. Your eyes will thank you!
The only other Brave Series show I’ve watched is The Brave Of Gold: Goldran which is a pretty different show to GaoGaiGar and not just because series mainstay Masami Obari doesn’t do anything on the show. It’s a very goofy mecha comedy show, in contrast to GaoGaiGar which replaces goofy with gutsy. Goldran has amazing plotlines such as Goldran becomes a father somehow, visiting a planet where all the potatoes make you fart and a fight against a train themed mecha called HELL THOMAS. So you can tell that this is something I appreciate very much.
I imagine Might Gaine is going to swing either way in the goofy/gutsy divide. Dunno where exactly that’d be since I’m very much in the dark of what it’s all about apart from it being train themed. Could it possibly be as good as Shinkalion? I just need to get around to watching it!
#10 Elf Princess Rane
Before this reply I had never heard of Elf Princess Rane before let alone having watched it before so I have to do something that is apparently a cardinal sin among reviewers and journalists.
Reviewing something without having watched it before.
Allow me to introduce you to some epic techniques that you can use to review any anime. First, take a trip to AniList and take a look at the synopsis.
I mean, that’s pretty standard fantasy fare. Finding the legendary treasure, fairies and some underhanded evil project from a disgruntled family member. Do like how they can’t quite decide what the name of the fairy is. Is it Rane, is it Ren, is it Renne? Who knows, but that last suggestion sounds like penne, and I do like that shape of pasta.
Sadly though, the synopsis doesn’t give me the sauce, how does this anime move? Well to do that, I need to go on Sakugabooru and see if anyone else has watched this and bothered to upload any lovely looking stuff on there. Unfortunately, it seems the sakuga goons also haven’t put anything up from Elf Princess Rane either.
I can however talk plenty about the staff on it however because they do happen to be pretty noteworthy folks. First we get to the director of the OVA…checks notes…ah it’s err Hatsune Miku?
Well I’m sure Miku needs no introduction, she’s a talented multi award winning singer, voice actress and native of Sapporo, Hokkaido. She’s started out in Photography in the mid 80s before moving onto boarding and direction, gaining a lot of attention for her work on Akazukin Chacha, a personal favourite of mine. Miku’s work eventually got her work on several notable shows including Kodomo no Omocha, Fruits Basket (2001) and Tonkatsu DJ Agetarou to name a few.
All that despite having a very busy and very hectic music career! Did you know Miku is also a licensed train driver as well? She’s seriously a very talented artist!
Miku worked alongside Toshihide Masudate who got his Character Design debut on the OVA. I think he did a pretty good job of it to be honest with you. Miku was very cunning, having him work alongside her! Depending on your tastes, Masudate is most known either for his work on In Another World With My Smartphone or the stack of adult content that he did designs for in the 2000s. I’m not going to judge you either way to be honest.
I think Elf Princess Rane is definitely something I could watch eventually. Just need plenty of reminding!
#11 Sore Ike! Anpanman
If we want to get into another anime institution in this article, it seems we didn’t have to go to far from Doraemon. As we now have Anpanman in the suggestions. Unlike Doraemon however I have not watched a single episode or film from the Anpanman series.
Nothing.
I know that Anpanman is very popular in Japan, that it’s still going even though it started over 35 years ago in 1988 and I know what he looks like. Apart from that though, my knowledge of Anpanman is very very surface level. Heck, I don’t even know what Anpanman sounds like!
Honestly I’m very impressed with the one person I follow on AniList who swears they’ve completed the show and gave it 5.5/10. Firstly, I must congratulate them for the fact that they’ve worked out how to do that time travel thing because Anpanman is still airing and shows no sign of actually ending and secondly…only 5.5/10? The person has watched thousands of episodes of this show and only gave it a middling score!? I have to question why you’d go to such incredible lengths just to complete a show this long only to go “well it’s kinda average really.”
I do wonder if people will complete the 1979-2005 series of Doraemon which has over 1,700 episodes and go, “yeah, that was perfectly average”. I would feel that if you were going to spend large amounts of time undertaking this task, you’d at least think of the show as being pretty enjoyable! I understand I’ve not really said much about the show at this point but I think this is a very important thing to mention!
Unlike the positively unknown Elf Princess Rane, Anpanman actually has quite a few cuts uploaded on Sakugabooru, so I can actually get quite a good look at it. It looks very cute! Kids in Japan sure have a great superhero to rally around. I mean here we got Super Gran who is also a very good superhero but one that the kids of today can’t really enjoy quite as much. It’s thankful then, that Anpanman continues to be produced so baddies can be beaten up by a humanoid sweet bread treat. I think that’s cool.
