While researching, I've come across anime that never followed the trends at the time of their release, this could be a number of reasons, they were ahead of their time, they missed their time, can't be described as matching any trend or missed the point entirely.
10. Sakura Wars
The Steampunk genre never actually caught on as an anime trend despite many fans liking the aesthetic for costume design. Period piece anime often covered drama, romance or popular masterpiece stories and even those stories set in Britain were more based on British myths and legends. Sakura Wars was popular but didn't last.
9. Saiyuki
Journey to the West has been covered dozens of times but not in the way Kazuya Minekura did, the band of four males led by a disgruntled priest more resembling Final Fantasy 15 than anime. Way ahead of it's time.
8. Fancy Lala
Adapted from the prototype Fashion Lala, Fancy Lala is a magical girl series where the lead character uses a magical item to become a young adult to either solve problems or become a star, they were very popular in the 80s but died off thanks to Sailor Moon, Fancy Lala missed the boat by a decade.
7. Yokai Watch
Much like Fancy Lala, it arrived a decade after it's trend had passed, for Yokai Watch it's the Pokemon clones, although it had reasonable popularity, it was really short lived.
6. G Gundam
While every Gundam series is an epic war space opera, G Gundam is a testosterone fueled robot battle tournament, as I consider Gundam it's own trend, this one really feels out of place.
5. Angelic Layer
You make an anime about fighting toy dolls but don't make it an actual toyline at a time where toy anime was in fashion. Another poor decision from Clamp.
4. Stop Hibari Kun
The anime itself was trendy as a romantic comedy in the early 80s when Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku were king. It's themes on Gender Identity were 40 years ahead of it's time.
3. Tenchi Muyo
More of a Western perspective on this one, why introduce a sci-fi romcom that popularised the harem genre on Toonami among shows like Gundam Wing and Dragonballz? Yeah it had action but not that much, most episodes of Tenchi were very sitcom like in presentation, it's alternate name No Need For Tenchi is a quip on lead character Tenchi's lack of presence despite being the lead.
2. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is an 80s manga franchise that took 20 years to see an anime adaption that came in as a force of nature no one saw coming that ignored all the trends and could never be imitated, only one older series surpasses it.
1. Lupin the 3rd
Lupin the 3rd has been in every era of anime since 1967 and has never had to change anything, it's never been imitated, it's never followed trends, it's the most original IP in all of Anime next to only Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
So from one Lupin film to another, this is Pricess of the Breeze.
Another day at the office for Lupin as this time he targets an airship belonging to the small nation of Shahalta but ends up going after the same things as a band of Sky Pirates.
Knowing that there must be more to this than meets the eye, Lupin uses what he captured, a baby, to try and draw out the pirates. Soon enough he meets Yutika, a young Sky Pirate with a family of ex royal guards holding onto gems that would reveal a massive treasure but the royal family themselves manipulated by a corrupt business man and some dangerous mercenaries seek the same treasure.
I'm going to be honest after seeing four films from this long franchise, it's showing itself to be formulaic, which works for Lupin in a way.
Lupin and Jigen are on a heist but end up losing out due to something bigger landing on their lap.
Fujiko is already in deep with the mystery.
Zenigata is usually hired by the villain but ends up unintentionally helping Lupin.
And Goemon just shows up.
It's an effective formula but it needs to surround a big storyline.
This film was on the right track but it's need to repeat the formula caused numerous plot holes with the biggest one being the baby's parents. It also paces itself a bit schizophrenic like a gamer reacting too early to a time limit despite having more than enough to finish it properly.
The other characters are okay but having to work off some big characters is tough to nail and this film is far too generic to be really good.
I didn't watch the dub but based on the last film's voice acting it shouldn't be an issue.
Final Verdict: It's fine but if you've come into this film having seen one of the better ones you'll feel disappointed.
On the 11th April 2019 the world lost a genius of the anime world, Monkey Punch creator of Lupin the 3rd one of the most renowned creations in the medium, so today this review is in honour of Monkey Punch.
RIP Monkey Punch 1937-2019
Lupin is up to his usual cat and mouse antics between himself and Zenigata this time taking place in Brazil, but there is a religious cult known as the Nostradamus Sect in the middle of an operation to capture the daughter of business tycoon and presidential candidate Douglas.
Julia the daughter of Douglas just happens to be on the plane that gets hijacked along with Lupin, Jigen, Fujiko and the Brazilian soccer team. With Julia kidnapped Lupin goes to the great Earth building to try and find out what the kidnappers want, it turns out Douglas has the real book of Nostradamus and the Sect want it in exchange for his daughter and to resign his candidacy as President.
Knowing that his uncle almost succeeded in opening the vault, Lupin goes to his prison cell to try and obtain a means to get into the vault himself all the while being pursued by the sect.
Meanwhile the sect brainwashes the Brazilian soccer team to set up the bombs all around the Earth building.
After escaping his own near death, Lupin returns with his gang to try and get into the vault where the final act is played out.
It's classic Lupin action with the stakes much higher than a typical episode, it's fun, action packed and a little ridiculous.
The dub is top notch with some great work from Funimation.
If there's anything I didn't like it's probably the villains, their plan doesn't really make sense as one seems to want the World and the other wants it destroyed, which would've been fine if they weren't on the same team, fairly minor though and doesn't take away from the spectacle.
Final Verdict: Lots of fun and good old classic Lupin action, a worthy addition to the film series.
I start off the new year with a review, on a new computer no less so we begin with a review on Lupin the 3rd Woman named Fujiko Mine.
Lupin as most people know is anime's master thief while Fujiko Mine is the only decent rival he has; in this stylish art version of Lupin, we get into the background of Fujiko Mine along with the rest of the cast of Lupin, Jigen, Goemon and Zenigata; we cover what is Fujiko's past along with how she met the rest of the cast and for the first half, it's really good, we get some great plots, the characters are amazing, even Zenigata who is normally a butt monkey in the main show takes an upgrade in badass. Its also very sexy; Fujiko manages to go naked at least once per episode and it doesn't feel like a hentai, it's just sexy; so with all that in this show it can't possibly go wrong; That is until the second half of the anime when the main plot thickens; suddenly Fujiko starts losing her mind and we spend alot of time seeing owl men as we discover that Fujiko's memories are false.
This gets worst when Zenigata's over effeminate misogynist Oscar starts playing dirty in trying to catch Fujiko all the while the owl men keep making more hallucinations to the point where you can no longer follow the story and the art style really doesn't help, and that's a real shame, it started so well only for the story to go AWOL halfway. Overall we don't even get Fujiko's backstory which is what I subscribed to when I started and I feel cheated by that.
Final Verdict: The art style is on a different level and the stuff it does well, it does really well but I think they tried too hard to go all arthouse on the anime when really the stuff it started with was good enough to support 13 episodes.
