Reflections on Anime

I belong to the original Voltes 5 generation. Which means I was already old enough to appreciate that particular anime when it came out in the seventies. I watched the show religiously, 5:30 PM on Fridays, on Channel 7. Steve, Mark, Big Bert, Little John (with his annoying octupus), and Jaime and their adventures with the giant robot Voltes 5 were sacred times. I can't remember missing any episodes.

More than that, I was a Koji Kabuto fan. Mazinger Z kicked serious ass and was less of a drama fest than Voltes 5. If I remember right, Mazinger Z was on Tuesdays, 5:30 PM. Never mind that his killer move was actually a giant version of a toaster's heating coil. When his foes melted, it rocked. The shows were not kiddie, and yet they were swashbuckling adventures, filled with amazing visuals and more than enough action to set a young boy's fantasies aflame. Enemies being sliced open, punched through, frozen, or melted were regular fare, done by machines and individuals too cool to be true, but we all wished were.

Try doing that, Mickey.

I do remember the shows getting cut just as they were building to a climax. President Marcos, in a sudden burst of moral fiber, decided to ban the showing of Japanese anime programs due to its violent nature. Suddenly, my kick-ass cartoon viewing was relegated to Archie cartoons every Saturday. Solace came from the old Warner Brothers cartoons, the ones where you just wondered what they were smoking when they did it.

I tolerated the injustice of it all until the eighties, when anime began to return.

Transformers, Macross (which eventually got swallowed up by Robotech, something I didn't agree with), re-runs of Voltes V began to reappear. Masked Rider Black, Shaider, Bioman, and other shows began to return, bringing with it the quirky and fascinating Japanese anime aesthetic back.

I was happy at the return, and can say I was at the edge. I saw Bubblegum Crisis a few months after it came out in Japan, via bootlegged tapes. The Dirty Pair? Saw that. Five Star Stories? Saw that. Char's Counterattack? Saw that even if I had no idea what Gundams were. My buddies and I would gather at someone's house to watch the unsubbed, undubbed tapes and try and figure out what was going on.

A few years back, Channel 7 decided to re-run Voltes 5 in all its entirety, to the very end. That first day, and I remember this clearly, there was no traffic on any thoroughfare during its time slot. It affirmed the fact that my generation wanted its closure. We were getting it, 20 years after and damn the boss, I was going home early to watch it.

And now, looking at how huge it's gotten, well, can't say I'm not happy. Things like Macross Frontier, Soul Eater, and, yes, even Code Geass are wonderful, enjoyable romps. My son watches Soul Eater with me, even if we both don't speak Japanese (thank goodness for subtitles). It's nice to see how even the Japanese are improving what they seemed to have perfected long ago. Their narratives are tighter now, their understanding of pacing and plot are much, much better. Compelling art finally meets compelling plots. Like I said, can't be happier

Whoops, gotta cut this short. My download's done...

The Goddamned Batman

I haven't written anything in a long time, partially because I didn't feel like there was a point to this blog. Honestly. To have a blog to just explore my more...literary inclinations seemed to be height of human hubris.

Hah. So, why am I writing now?

Batman. The Goddamned Batman, to be exact. The whole bruhaha that Mr. Miller has caused by writing All Star Batman and Robin.

It seems like so many people are complaining about how the caped crusader is portrayed by Mr. Miller, that it seems like such a departure from his version of Batman in the now-classic Dark Knight Returns. These same people probably have not read their copies in a while.

Miller's All-Star Batman is the same Batman as the Dark Knight. Exactly the same. Sadistic, slightly off his rocker, cocky as hell with his own ability. It's just more obvious when the guy is not pushing fifty and the weaknesses aren't as glaring. What do we really expect from a man who has trained obsessively since childhood and decides that a rodent costume is the perfect means by which he could scare criminals? He's nuts, and thank goodness.

It seems like few people actually understood Miller's vision of Batman when the earlier (now classic) books came out. Miller has remained true to his interpretation of the character, its our understanding of them that has changed. Decades of Batmen, reinvented, re-written, re-imagined, have been placed in between The Dark Knight and All Star Batman. And, apparently, it's colored the viewpoints of those who read (and even review) comics.

Personally, Miller's Batman was always the most interesting of the various versions out there. At least the guy enjoyed what he was doing.

Miller's hilarious send-up of common Bat-conventions and his decidedly skewed point of view of other heroes should be welcome in an industry that has suffered terribly from its own obsession with reinvention.

Thanks, Frank for a great set. Looking forward to more.