Now lets review a cartoon that has a lot of criticism for going way off formula. Lets look at Shaggy & Scooby Doo: Get a Clue.
But first some history, when it comes to Scooby Doo, arguably the best selling characters are Scooby and Shaggy, that's why they could get away with their own series along with Scrappy Doo, which went off formula from the ghost chasing to genuine mystery solving, something that also existed with the TV movies, but this incarnation Get a Clue took things in such a different direction that it's completely lost as Get a Clue has less to do with mystery solving and more to do with taking down an evil genius mad man. The plot goes that Shaggy's rich uncle Albert goes missing and leaves everything to Shaggy in his will but the evil Dr Phineus Phibes is after Albert's research so it's up to Shaggy and Scooby to stop him, using all forms of technology open to them. This is one of the last cartoons made by Joseph Barbera before his death at the impressive age of 95 years, Joseph of course being one half of Hanna Barbera.
My history with Scooby Doo is a bit mixed as I appreciate the originals and even some of the Scrappy Doo series, I'm not such a fan of the modern Scooby Doo shows or it's TV Films, as for this one it kind of falls in between which is strange considering that it doesn't have anything to do with solving mysteries, in fact you could say it's a poor mans spy and super hero show. But in a strange way I welcome the direction this series was taking.
There's a point in history where a character in any cartoon becomes tired and Scooby Doo and his friends at this point were becoming this and Get a Clue was the breath of fresh air it needed, even if it took away what Scooby Doo was famous for, it's no different to the many spinoffs during Hanna Barbera's run during the 70s and 80s which looking back was utterly, utterly terrible.
So in conclusion I'd say this made people stand up and notice and while fans would clearly miss the traditional Scooby Doo, it doesn't hurt to test the waters of another genre.
Okay I'm finished with yesterdays rant so lets review something nice and fluffy as we dive into one of Sega's lesser known franchises Lil Pri.
The world of Fairyland is in trouble as all the happiness is being drained from it's lands so the Queen sends three magical pets to awaken the three legendary idols based on popular fairy tale princesses in order to restore happiness into the world. To do this, three young girls, Ringo, Leila and Natsuki are transformed into the teenage idols of Snow White, Cinderella and Kaguya respectively who sing their pop songs and restore happiness to both Fairyland and Earth.
This sounds like one of those shows for girls that you'd easily get annoyed about but it's actually surprisingly good, mainly because it pays homage to the 80s Magical Idol shows but also starts a trend of extreme color palettes and impossible idol dresses that are now common place in today's shojo line up with the likes of PriPara, Pretty Cure and Aikatsu, and it's biggest selling point, the songs are surprisingly catchy, the comedy is quite amusing, the characters are likeable apart from Vivi the Cat whose appearance felt forced, and while it remains basic in it's plot and somewhat predictable, it's touching moments can make even the hardest anime fan cry.
It's definitely not to everyone's tastes, Japan's take on Anime for young girls is somewhere in the region of Hatsune Miku meets Disney Princess which definitely sounds like the worst combination in the world but in reality it really isn't as bad as the pretty sparkles make out.
No English dub but I did hear a Korean dub which is surprisingly good, research for you, you never know what your going to get.
Final Verdict: Definitely not to the average anime fan's tastes but if you do manage to look past the sparkles you do get to watch a good anime.
I think it's time to put to rest an old enemy. Time to finally review Comic Party
Kazuki Sendo is invited by his friend Taishi Kuhonbutsu to Comic Party, a major event celebrating Dojinshi, impressed by what he sees and being a decent artist himself, Kazuki starts taking up Dojinshi as a hobby with Taishi along with other varied female Otaku, however his childhood friend Mizuki hates Otaku and doesn't want to see her friend get drawn into their world.
One thing I've come to understand while viewing anime on Otaku culture is how much Japan seems to be embarrassed by it; shows like Welcome to the NHK, Watamote and Video Girl Ai do little to make the Otaku individual feel better about themselves which is sad because an Otaku needs as much support as possible for them not to feel outcast by society. Densha Otoko, Otaku no Video, Cosplay Complex (Within Reason), Aoi House and Genshiken are probably the shows that do the best at supporting the average Otaku whereas this series would've joined them had they not made a character like Mizuki which is pretty much the anime sticking a middle finger up at me for liking anime. In short it's like the anime is bullying me and it actually prevents me from liking the regular content which isn't that bad if a little bit in your face. It's a shame it has to be this way especially when the show itself minus Mizuki is actually pretty good but it's because Mizuki is not only a main character but a plot device as well, you cannot ignore her and for that the show is ruined.
If you don't like your taste in anime to be insulted by this show then I suggest not watching the dub as it lessens the pain rather than having someone in your language tell it to your face.
Final Verdict: Personally I hate this show, for everyone else I suggest you test your tolerance with Mizuki to decide whether or not this show is good, if you can tolerate her then you'll enjoy it, if you can't then this will be a series difficult not to get angry at.
Moving on with the Road to Summer Special is Sonic's failed game reboot Sonic Boom.
The backlash for this thing has finally died down now, so to clarify a few things about how I feel about the games, yes Knuckles looks horrible, yes the games are glitchy and poorly designed and yes I did do the top ten things worst than Sonic Boom several months back, my feelings have always been the same, I've seen and played a lot worst than Sonic Boom so lets see if the cartoon does any better.
Well credit where credit is due, the Sonic Boom cartoon is actually really funny. Using the same characters and restoring some of the slapstick humor used in some of the earliest Sonic cartoons, Sonic Boom cartoon makes up for the rest of this spinoff franchise being bad.
It's an easy thing to say it's not the true Sonic everyone loves but really what medium is? AoStH was so heavy on slapstick that it seemed baffling at times, SatAM while good played a very dark setting to what was otherwise quite a colorful set of characters, Underground had this weird thing going where you pretty much have SatAM's dark setting with cheesy catchy pop music, the Sonic OVA featured the battle with Metal Sonic along with an out of place Catgirl and finally Sonic X featured humans we really didn't need to see in the franchise, so when you look at Sonic Boom that uses copious amounts of slapstick as it's main selling point you kind of come full circle. In the end I just prefer to watch a cartoon that's fun which everyone seems to forget nowadays, Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes are timeless because they still make me laugh, they never went complicated they only functioned on the slapstick and the punchline and Sonic Boom is very much the same as that. If that's still a problem for Sonic fans then I ask you what do you want then?
As promised here is my review of the Vision of Escaflowne.
The 90s were the renaissance of Anime as some of the most memorable in history were created but kind of lost in the bunch is Escaflowne. Escaflowne is about a girl named Hitomi who's interest in divination lands her in the mystic world of Gaea with a winged Prince named Van Fanel who was slaying a dragon at the time of the incident.
Gaea is at war as the deadly Zaibach Empire attempt to take over the world so it's up to Van to awaken the mecha Escaflowne and along with the knight Allen Schezar, fight back and save the world while Hitomi is stuck in the middle of everything when her powers somehow react with Escaflowne.
Escaflowne can be anything from memorable to forgettable depending on your experience with the series, the first half of the series was fantastic, it showcased some great action, some great suspense and provided a story which was really setting up for a climatic finish but then it got all complicated and kind of fell apart in an attempt to look more intelligent than it really was during the second half, even the extra villains and some of the side characters came across as bland and uninteresting but what really let the series down was the total lack of chemistry between the leads Van and Hitomi. True story now, the Escaflowne Manga featured a glasses wearing school girl who became a busty blonde when she made contact with Escaflowne, and she suited the franchise much better than Anime Hitomi ever did. I guess I'm saying that I don't really like Hitomi as a character, her design compared to other female anime characters at the time was bland, her personality was dull and she never really delivers what the fans want. Okay I don't expect her to be a femme fatale like Faye Valentine, a rambunctious girl like Aisha Clan Clan or a proper audience surrogate character like Meryl Stryfe, but at least those female characters stood out. Hitomi is lucky to be remembered and Escaflowne isn't exactly well remembered to begin with.
Dub is pretty good and the art style is a little dated and a little hard to ignore the big pointy noses, the music is by Yoko Kanno who never fails to bring in viewing numbers.
Final Verdict: Take it or leave it, there's enough to enjoy in the series but if you really want to avoid some of the anime's shortcomings you may want to skip a lot of the second half.
