#255 : What’s Michael? 2

Michael is back again in What’s Michael? 2! And in case you have not seen the original What’s Michael? you might be asking well who is Michael? He is a cat, an orange tabby and he is the star and subject of this very anime you are reading about. So is this some sort of Garfield, Heathcliff, or Morris the Cat (remember the old 9 Lives cat food commercials?) clone? Not exactly. Michael is just Michael, so now on with the show.

This second release of What’s Michael? ! just like the first was released as an OVA, but three years after the first volume, 1985 and 1988 respectively. Similar to round one, this is also an omnibus of random shorts stitched together into a collective whole. So I guess this means that there are either a lot of orange tabby tiger striped cats in Japan named Michael, or this one cat is living alternate lives in separate dimensions. Who knows? We begin with an opening credit sequence showing some dancing and shaking maracas. Reminds me of SEGA’s Samba de Amigo.

Following is one of three segments known as The Fugitive. It’s about a guy named Richard Kimble who is on the run from the law, even through he was wrongly accused of killing his wife… wait a minute! This is like an exact copy of the TV series plot line and character staring David Jansen, as well as the movie adaptation staring Harrison Ford. Except this time Kimble is a veterinarian and he always seems to come to Michael’s. It seems all his owners have apparent minor ignorances when it comes to being responsible for a cat (yes it’s plural, each segment features a different household). Kimble ends up doing something somewhat mean to Michael near the end of each section as a joke which Kimble finds humorous, but not Michael. Kimble then flees time and time again after each segment since he is still a wanted man on the run.

Michael also stars in segments that include these scenarios, in no particular order: 1. he is visited by journalists because apparently he can dance, 2. he, like his female partner Popo, as well as their owners, are subject to sexual temptations and desires (whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on), 3. the frustrations of being a parent,  4. cats can move into new homes and still have their same habitual patterns, 5. a wrestling match and 6. a baseball game featuring cats vs. dogs. My favorite concerns an out of work actor who adopts Michael and Popo even though he is flat broke; the guy has a soft spot towards the feline species. Wait till the end on this one!

Not to sure how many of you want to spend your time watching a 45 odd minute OVA sequel about cats and their lives in a screwball comedic format, but hey there was, and perhaps still is, an audience for What’s Michael? 2. I enjoyed it, but I like cats. Sometimes poor Michael goes through some torturous moments for humor, which I am not a fan of, but I have to remember this is only fantasy; no real cats were harmed during the making of this anime. What’s Michael? 2 is funny, sometimes bizarre and completely cat centric so take what you will from that. Ironic this was produced by a company called Kitty Films and no, this was not the only project they worked on. Check them out they have quite the resume!

#249 : Peacock King / Spirit Warrior

Let’s mix it up and make an anime. Hopefully you all can catch these references, but if you love anime you should (fingers crossed). Peacock King, also called Spirit Warrior, but the official translation is Kujaku Ō, is in my best description a seinen version of say Fist of the North Star, maybe Saint Seiya, and CLAMP’s Tokyo Babylon, or X: 1999 from my eyes and experience. And yet Peacock King is a lot more and even a little less in other areas, but I dunno, I found it fascinating on many levels. No expectations here so let’s spin this platter and drop that needle… umm this isn’t a review of an album on vinyl, hehehe…

Now then, is Peacock King just another VHS/early DVD of throw away seinen action from the Central Park Media archives that I have not gone over? Is this just schlock and no substance? Eh kinda, maybe, but NO! And I say no because yes it sort of has that CPM and Manga Entertainment vibe towards the particular audience they catered to back then, but there is something here in the form of it’s setting, then present day Japan and China, and it’s heroic protagonist, a Tantric Buddhist who is a spellcaster.

Time to introduce our hero Kujaku, a monk, magician and exorcist who has terrible motion sickness in vehicles.Though he is a ‘man of the cloth’, he does not shy away from worldly pleasures many young men enjoy like ice cream and girls. To quote from the subtitle track, “All my experiences add to my karma. A touch of heaven. A taste of paradise.”. Very much a novice in his craft, he strong potentials, but at times far from perfect when in execution. Through spoken word magic, which combines hand gestures, he can fight spirits and possessed creatures well beyond the ability of conventional techniques. He is aided by a female sidekick, Asura, who often becomes more a damsel in distress and Onimaru, who is either a demon, or a halfbreed human and interestingly is the polar opposite of yin to Kujuku’s yang. Meaning Onimaru represents the darker arts where as Kujuku is a warrior of the light.

Many seinen franchises have an emphasis on action and sometimes grotesque scenes, but… Peacock King has excellent drama and storytelling to compensate. There is an actual plot here. YES! Yet this OVA is very random over the five episode run as it used three different studios and a subsequent director for each. So the visuals, storytelling and over all feel are constantly changing. I am also including the two episode 1994 followup release in this writing because it is a direct continuation to the 1988 original. So you are all getting a buy one, get one free deal here 😉 … and ironically it is those last two episodes that I loved most because of: one, Rintaro’s directing; two, Studio Madhouse and three, a back story to Kujaku’s origins, hooray! Katsuhito Akiyama’s episodes I liked, but the Ichiro Itano episode, eh, it’s typical Itano meaning more violence and heavy action. So not my cup of tea, but maybe it is for you.

Peacock King was an interesting choice for me as I know if I didn’t watch it now I am not sure when I ever would as its not on my radar, EVER. Even though it has been available where I live for forever and a day I never gave it a watch. But I must say I was surprised as I genuinely liked it. What really gave me an itch though was learning about Tantric Buddhism, or at least introducing this version of Buddhism to me. From my understanding it’s a form of esoteric Buddhism reliant on chant, ritual and meditation and and has aspects of magic. I want to learn more for sure as this is similar to some of the Western esoteric spiritual subjects I also have interest in! Finally as I have never seen this anime before, I have had exposure to it from the world of video games. There were four games released way back when with two for the Nintendo Famicom, one for the Sega Mark III/Master System and one for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Mystic Defender, which I still have a cartridge for.

#243 : Aura Battler Dunbine: The Tale of Neo Byston Well

Sequels, common place for being completely unoriginal (so much so now a days with endless releases of large franchise properties, anime and otherwise), or perhaps a followup chapter to something from before. An epilogue perhaps. Often a sequel can give extra closure, an alternative perspective, or something completely out of left field.  For Aura Battler Dunbine: The Tale of Neo Byston we have a little of all three.

After the total all out massacre of the original 1983 TV series, the question remained what happened to the fantasy land of Byston Well? Aura Battler Dunbine was a show I enjoyed dearly in terms of the medieval European like scenery, the organic insect like mecha designs blessed by a supernatural (if not metaphysical) connection between their pilots, the intense passionate drama and the cast of heroes, villians and everyone else in between. It is in my opinion one of Sunrise’s best mech shows from the 1980s and one of four shows I hold dearly by creator Yoshiyuki Tomino (the other three being original Gundam, Zeta Gundam and Ideon). So why not make a small release three episode OVA as a sequel… ok, well what further tales does the land of Byston Well have to share?

Almost more of the same except this time 700 years in the future. Wow then perhaps this is a side story because that is quite  a distance from the original? That’s until we learn of one survivor from the previous wars, the brilliant and conniving Shot Weapon (yes that’s his name, lol). And there is also one Ferario of Silky/Silkie Mau, who bears a very similar name, if not the same (seems the spelling goes back and forth between both series?), to another of Byston Well’s mystical cast members. Ferario is a fancy word for basically a fairy (I like it) and little Silky, at the very beginning of episode 1, has been caught by our main protagonist Shion… who bears a similar name and appearance to TV series main man Sho Zama. Hmm, interesting an interesting tidbits of info, what’s next? Well you have a coming conflict between two factions, piloted mecha, a captured princess, an evil warlord, a little backstabbing and most importantly the coming of the next ‘holy warrior’ to pilot the Dunbine.

While the plot is very generic in many ways, can’t expect much from three episodes… eh actually I do, lol… I found the story to be sort of interesting and kind of dull. The artwork on the other hand is very enjoyable for my love of cel drawn animation. OVA’s usually have a little more budget than a TV series and this is a good example except sometimes it can fell a little stiff and rigid. The designs on the other hand are gorgeous if not almost post apocalyptic, no no, more ancient looking. The world of Byston Well seems more lush and magical this time round, if not more grounded… and again, ancient. The titular mecha Dunbine and the landscape itself, seems fossil-like now. A nice touch indeed! After all seven centuries have apparently passed.

Perhaps no where near the radar for many of you, this OVA for me was worth the minor effort since this is like a second ending to a TV series I loved… I had to try it since it’s an 80s anime!… afterall, that’s what I essentially do here! Of course there are those side stories released later like Wings of Rean and Garzey’s Wing, which I don’t have much interest in watching. The clips of Garzey’s Wing are enough for me for a general laugh. And can you believe to this day I still have not seen Garzey’s Wing proper. Perhaps that is best. Aura Battler Dunbine: The Tale of Neo Byston on the other hand is a good short sojourn back into Byston Well that is by no means a joke, but not something I may go back to… maybe. Though didn’t Cham Huau survive from the TV show? That would have been an interesting story to see what happened to her.