Panty and Stocking (with Garterbelt) - Japan's Answer to The Adult Swim

Panty and Stocking (with Garterbelt) is a comedic endeavour brought to us by Gainax, the monsters who gave us Neon Genesis Evangelion who then completely redeemed themselves by giving us Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. This time Gainax gets away from the super robot franchise and try their hand at something new; something completely new.

The premise of Panty and Stocking is that two angels (Panty and Stocking) have been kicked out of heaven for their bad behavior. They have been sent to earth to fight ghosts in order to redeem themselves, and they are equipped with holy garments (panties and stockings) that transform into their weapons. Panty is the elder of the two sisters, she is obsessed with sex and her panties transform into a gun of white holy light. Stocking is the younger angel, she is obsessed with sweets, and her stockings transform into swords of white holy light. They get their instructions from Garterbelt, a black priest sprouting a huge afro that functions as Bosley did for Charlie’s Angels, which is an apt comparison I believe. The concept is radical and it works, more on that in a moment.

An art style likely inspired by The Power Puff Girls.

A friend of my described Panty and Stocking as “The Power Puff Girls grown up” and given the art style of simplistic/basic details on all things and the excessive sexual content I would have to agree. The art style of Panty and Stocking is most likely inspired by The Power Puff girls, and the subject matter is far too mature for any ordinary kids cartoon. I use the term “mature” to describe the subject matter in the most liberal way possible, because topics like sex, violence, and more sex are things we typically associate with adults, however the excess use/abuse of bodily functions as plot points and villains, and the overzealous nature of everything sleazy and nasty about the show leads us away from anything “mature.” This is not a criticism, Panty and Stocking is a comedy, so it is allowed to be as obnoxious as it wants, but it is important to indentify the correct use of the word “mature” when talking about this show.

While the Power Puff girl analogy works very well, I feel the need to describe Panty and Stocking as “Japan has made their own adult swim cartoon” and the more and more I think about it Panty and Stocking does feel an awful lot like what would happen if Aqua Teen Hunger Force was combined with The Power Puff Girls. Here is the thing, when creating Panty and Stocking Gainax had the goal of making a show they thought Americans would like, which I believe explains a lot. There is a very strong American influence on Panty and Stocking, the obvious influences from the Adult Swim line up and Power Puff Girls aside, there are countless references made in the show that Americans are sure to get; there are references to Ghost Busters, Transformers, and South Park just to name a few. Tom Cruise is written into one of the story lines. The black machismo of Garterbelt is something American viewing audiences have loved for years and Japan is only beginning to appreciate. The whole show feels American, so much so, I thought after watching the first few episodes in English dub that this must have been made by Americans with a Japan influence on the art style and not the other way around, but sure enough this is the work of the Japanese. Needless to say when they dubbed Panty and Stocking it localized itself well.

Panty "transforms" into a Optimus Prime/Rodimus Prime parody.
Stocking "transforms" into a Megatron parody.  Sure why not?

The really impressive thing about Panty and Stocking is the humour. Yes... a lot of the gags in Panty and Stocking are about boogers, poop, jizz, and other childish shit, but not all of it. There is an episode where Panty and Stocking spend the entire ten minutes sitting on a coach talking about sex and sweets and how hungry they are waiting for Garterbelt to prepare dinner that is very reminiscent of the episode of Seinfeld where they spent the entire episode waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant. Not only is subtly referencing Seinfeld an awesome thing to do just in principal, but it speaks volumes about how Japan has grown in regards to their sense of humour.

This young girl is clumsy
so we get to see her panties a lot.
That's the joke.

I have always been very critical of Japan’s sense of humour. My kid brother once described the Japanese sense of humour as “robots trying to recreate comedy,” it is like they know humour exists and what is expected but they don’t understand it at all. I have sat through one too many shows where the joke, set up and punch line is just “sex exists.”

Here is the thing, making a reference to something without context or reason is not funny! Sex is real, we know, being reminded of its existence is not a joke nor is it some kind of get out of jail free card in comedy.

But to be fair I have enjoyed many comedic moments given to us from Japan. The eccentric antics of Vash the Stampede from Trigun and Kamina from Gurren Lagann always made me laugh. The quiet smart ass moments Spike and Jet shared in Cowboy Bebop were priceless. In Code Geass I laughed my ass off when Diethard, while discussing Zero, proclaimed “I want to see your ego shallow the world!” Because you thought it might.

So yes, Japan can be funny, but you’ll notice a singular commonality with all my examples of good comedy, they were all character based humour. We laugh are characters like Vash and Kamina because we are quickly familiarized with their over the top personalities and we enjoy seeing how they react to certain awkward, unfamiliar, or even ordinary situations. The same goes with Cowboy Bebop’s cast there is a great deal of depth in the characters and because they don’t see eye to eye all that often and because they are actually at ends with each other sometimes there is wit sprouted out from all directions from all parties involved and here is the really important thing, we like these characters and we are made aware of their strengths and flaws so when they butt heads, even politely, we get it and as a result there is a set up (established personalities) and a pay off (appropriate infighting) and a joke is born.

Several years ago I used to live with my big brother Sean.  At that time I used to cook a lot of bell peppers and beef on rice, because it was cheap.  We also watched a lot of Cowboy Bebop back then.  These two things were mutually exclusive, however Sean being a primary meat eater used to always say we need more beef, less bell pepper.  He would talk like Spike I would talk like Jet and we would have a good laugh.  It is almost like Spike and Jet are human beings we can relate too so their troubles feel like our troubles.  Their comedic moments are our comedic moments.

We as an audience don’t care about random sex objects or zero dimensional characters so seeing them react to the same situations is not funny, or as it tends to be the case seeing non-characters react to preposterous situation is also not funny, because if you are going to have absurd situations take place you need an absurd premise otherwise the suspension of disbelief removes the audience from the situation and therefore removes them from the joke. So many anime are often guilty of failing to accomplish either and as a consequence they fail twice over to be funny.

"Because the future. Shut up."

One of the charms of a show like Aqua Teen Hunger Force is that it accomplishes both. The show about a giant walking talking meal from a fast food restaurant may on the surface appear to be a trashy idiotic show, and maybe it is, however it does have rich personalities from all of its four primary characters, and once you become familiar with those characters the show begins to really grow on you. Furthermore Aqua Teen Hunger Force has an absurd premise so when absurd situations arrive you don’t question them. Another example of a preset premise which allows an extreme suspension of disbelief from the viewers is Futurama, when impossible things happen in Futurama you don’t question it because it’s the future. Likewise when ridiculous things happen in Aqua Teen Hunger Force you don’t question it because they live in a world of talking food items and various other mythical and magical beings.

Unlike the overwhelming majority of sexualized characters in anime Panty and Stocking somehow manage to be characters, actual characters. Even something as simple as, one loves sex, the other loves sweets, gives us personality traits we can hook onto, but there is much more than that. Both are irresponsible selfish young women (women not girls) but they are very different from one another.

Panty is an attention seeking egoist. She is bold, brave, outspoken, stubborn and proudly obnoxious. Panty is a believable badass because she has the powers and the personality to back it up. Also she is a woman, not some little girl, unlike almost every other anime “slut” this slutty girl actually qualifies as a slut, as in, Panty actually has sex with men during the course of the series and does not feint or become weak when in the presence of a man. Even though she is clearly an intended walking joke she still comes off like ten times the woman of most female characters in anime. Panty is a likable character and we cannot help but root for this bitchy angel.

When Panty temporarily loses her powers, Garterbelt tells her
"You are no longer a bitchy angel.  Now you are just a bitch!"
This is a actual joke.  I laughed.  Good work.

Stocking has to be a fan favourite. She is the younger “sweeter” sister to the slutty Panty. She also has the bigger bust, is into bondage and is a bit of a goth girl, all those things, nerds loves all those things, and we all know nerds love anime too, so following the math I strongly suspect nerds love Stocking. In the classic red nose and white face theory of comedy, Stocking is allowed to serve as the serious white face to Panty’s red nose which allows us to identify her as the smarter and more innocent sister since Panty is always getting into excessive trouble, this also allows Stocking to be the more cynical (and negative and therefore goth) of the two. Stocking is also a likable character and since we like both her and her sister we can enjoy the banter and anger they exude upon one another regardless of who comes out on top.

Yeah, the Internet is going to love you.

Remember, Panty and Stocking are bad angels, that’s why they are on earth fighting ghost. They behave badly because they are bad angels and crazy things keep happening because they are angels who fight ghosts. Assuming you can accept this premise the entire series is coherent. There are no absurd moments as far as the plot is concerned because the premise absorbs all the absurdity for us. The stage is set now any tangent joke can be adopted into the series.

So without even bothering to introduce and explain the supporting cast we have personalities in place and flexible set of rules for outlandish world building, now half the work is done for the set up for any joke. When the ghost die, they turn into obvious models and then blow up, the whole notion that they would preset it this was is hilarious, but it works because the premise allows it; also for me, it sets up the show’s funniest moment:

One last thing, my other blog is a music blog: http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/ so yeah, I am sort of a music guy, and knowing that it should come as no surprise my single favorite moment in the series was in the eleventh episode, a very experimental episode to say the least, where the last five minutes is taken up by a music video:

I naturally enjoy the playful references to Elvis, Kiss, The Beatles, Madonna, Queen, Tatu, Sex Pistols, Jimi Hendrix, Gorillaz, Pink Floyd, The Velvet Underground, Nirvana, and King Crimson, plus a few more I am not confident in identifying from memory. Teddyloid – D Rock City, holds up as a pretty good song and its lyrics do a service to the series. As a nice little added bonus we get from the series is a seemingly legit music video. Very experimental and very cool.

I should not be this impressed Panty and Stocking, but I am. I am impressed that Japan produced something like Panty and Stocking, not only is it a rare success at comedy from a country that otherwise appears populated by robots, but it is unique brand of humour we have never seen Japan attempt before or if they have they failed so miserably no one could correctly identify it. Panty and Stocking is a reasonably funny, very enjoyable, decent anime. However, it is also a one of kind production. Japan has never animated something that looks like Panty and Stocking and there has never been a show from Japan to be funny the way Panty and Stocking is. Where we usual get the ultra conservative, bewilderingly ignorant expression of awkward sexual acknowledgement we get instead a full on vulgar sex show of unrealistic characters behaving in a realistic way. For what Panty and Stocking was trying to be the show succeeds perfectly and for that reason I am very impressed. It is almost as if Japan has grown up and is no longer afraid of girl’s panties... or stockings too I suppose. When has anyone’s nose started bleeding because they saw a girl’s undergarments? That’s just stupid.

I give Panty and Stocking an 8 out 10 for the overall product but a 10 out 10 for originality and style. Good work Japan, way to man up and have a vulgar cartoon about horny angels.

P.S.

Even though I make fun of Japan a lot I actually love Japan.  There are few cultures that have imaginations as unbridled as Japan.  It is the same wild creativity that gives us both gems and shit, and I can live with the shit because we get so many gems out of it.

Mobile Suit Gundam - A Brief Introduction

The Gundam franchise exists primarily as a means to sell toys. Bandi is a huge toy company in Japan and they wanted to expand sales of their model figurines by employing the strategy of making a television show about them. This strategy would be repeated by Bandi with the Macross series and again by rival toy company Takara with the world famous Transformers. I do not know of any toy franchise predating Gundam receiving this kind of marketing service which leads me to believe Gundam very well may have been the first.

Gentlemen, how do we
sell all these toys?

I have always been curious how the process of writing a show about children’s toys begins and unfolds. I know for a fact that in the example of Transformers Hasbro (Takara’s American associate business partner) hired Bob Budiansky from Marvel Comics to sit down look over the toys they wanted to sell and create unique personalities, functions and roles for each sentient robot and then to create a fantastic universe for them to exist in, and Mr. Budiansky did an incredible job. I imagine it must have been a very amusing business meeting for all involved, 

“Bob, how are we going to sell these toys to children?”

“Hang on I’m a mother fucking genius!”

Also I have always been curious how “Mobile Suit Gundam” came to exist. Mobile Suit Gundam predates Transformers by roughly a half decade, so the idea of creating a story staring toys for the purpose of selling those said toys would have been that much odder to the average person, furthermore the man Bandi hired to write the original Gundam series was a very methodical man. Yoshiyuki Tomino is an interesting writer as he had worked hard and long on multiple series and created a writing style that is very unique. Tomino was not some upstart writer willing to take on any kind of unusual work, Tomino was a seasoned veteran having worked on Astro Boy back in 1963 with the godfather of anime Osamu Tezuka, and Tomino had always commanded a great deal of respect from his fellow writers. Tezuka even referred to Tomino as Mr. Tomino, which was a great showing of respect from an elder.

The man Yoshiyuki
(Kill them all) Tomino

Yoshiyuki Tomino accepted the job of writing “Mobile Suit Gundam” and took it as an opportunity to write a grand work of science fiction. The technology in Mobile Suit Gundam is believable at least in concept. In the future mankind has polluted the earth far too much so we take to the stars and make a home for ourselves there.

We build “colonies” at Lagrangian points in space so they remained fixed in relative position to the earth, moon, mars etc. These colonies have contained atmospheres and subsequently are easily destroyed by advanced military weapons, since fracturing the dome of one of these colonies can easily kill the hundreds of millions of people inside. It is deemed a war crime to attack a colony.

By the way, Lagrangian points are real: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point

The first, the original, Gundam

The mobile suit, the Gundam itself, is sophisticated military hardware. Unlike the Zeon Zakus which are heavily armored, the Gundam has light armor and a laser rifle that cut through heavy armor. A unique balancing act begins between the two warring side, no amount of heavy armor can repel the beam saber of beam rifle so lighter armor is preferred to dodge the attack entirely, but without armor explosive rounds can now tare through the mobile suit and we see new and inventive solutions to this balancing act as the war progresses. And we see technology and warfare grow dramatically over the course of the series, by the mid way point the Gundam itself is an outdated weapon.

Living in space human beings begin to adapt to multi directional surroundings, not only do we see people struggling with zero gravity we see people who don’t struggle at all since they grew up in outer space. Combat is made all the more difficult because now enemies can come from every possible direction this also makes it easy to get lost. But humans are adaptable creatures, we evolve. Some humans are born with the ability to sense other people, giving them focus points surrounding them and helping them discern where they are. A particularly useful ability during battle since it is difficult to sneak up on someone when they can sense you coming. We call this gifted people “new types.” New types are a bit of stretch but there is no denying the explanation is one of science fiction, not fantasy.

Question: What is the difference between old science fiction and new science fiction?

Answer: Science.

Comparing the later Gundam series to the original ones is like comparing Jules Vern to the gentlemen who created Dr. Who. Tomino actually put thought and effort into the original Gundam series and that’s why it is an actually work of science fiction, this is also why it feels “real.”

Mazinger Z was the first
robot to be piloted

The Super Robot genre of anime was well established before 1979 with outstanding contributors like Tetsujin 28, Mazinger Z, and the Getter Robo, but the Gundam, that was the first real robot. All the super robots are more or less Japan’s answer to western superheroes. Our superheroes wear costumes; Japan’s super heroes command giant robots with incredible and poorly explained powers. The Gundam however made sense; it is possible, or at least arguable, that the mobile suit could exist in an alternate reality. The Gundam was plausible the explanation given to explain its existence and what it was capable of was very realistic given the premise of “it’s the future and science got awesome.”

Mobile Suit Gundam is many things; an elaborate ruse to sell toys; a true work of science fiction, an engaging and introspective war drama with great characters on both sides, a respectable Japanese writer’s magnum opus, and the first ever Real Robot anime.

Tomino took something silly like model kits and forced a great story upon it. I have heard multiple times that the creative process for the Gundam metaseries was difficult for both Bandi and Tomino. Bandi wanted to sell toys, to boys specifically, while Tomino wanted complete freedom to expand his high imagination in all possible directions. Tomino did not care what the robots looked like; he cared what practical purpose they served. He hardly cared about the robots at all he cared about the people piloting them. And this is why the original series along with the direct sequel Zeta, written by Tomino, are more famous for the storylines, plot devices, character developments, and history of the universal century more so than the mobile suits that were present. Other than the Gundam and the Zaku I would be hard pressed to remember the name of any of the other mobile suits in any of the Gundam series, but I can remember just about every character and if not by name then at least by personality and what they did. There is great difference between this and what would become of Gundam.

In future series the notion of a new type would be suggested as a superior human being, an elite member of society and ordinary humans were now lesser people. You might think a plot devices like that would be cause for civil unrest, a metaphor for racism, or cause of friction between characters who have special powers and those who do not, no such luck. This whole fascist undertone is written in series like Gundam Seed at face value, as if we are to accept that these special main characters are better than everyone else and all the elitist, fascist bullshit that comes with it should be ignored so we can praise our special main characters. These special main characters never really use the power of a new type, the power is more treated like dues ex machine if it ever actually comes into play at all. Basically they can do things because they have powers, even when the things they are doing could not be explained with new type powers.

The other great example of dues ex machina is now the Gundam itself. What made the original mobile suit so deadly was not that the Gundam itself, as stated before the Gundam was an obsolete piece of military hardware near the half way point of the first series, what made the Gundam, the white devil to those who opposed it, was the pilot Amuro Ray.

Amuro Ray the original
Gundam's pilot

Amuro Ray was a new type and there, are very few new types in the original series, so Amuro being one actually makes him unique. He doesn’t understand his powers, and lacking an instructor we see him learn about them as the shows progresses. We see Amuro use his powers frequently to sense enemy presence, identify enemy pilots by their aggression and feelings, and how he uses these powers to avoid being shot and to know how and when to attack. Also we are shown that Amuro has a real knack for machinery, and piloting, he is just a natural talent for this, yet still time is taken where we see him grow as a pilot and a soldier. Also get this, him being a young man is a handicap when it comes to being a soldier, something else we see him overcome. Also there is an event that explains why a sixteen year old kid is piloting the Gundam, when the Zeon attack the military die defending the civilians so a bunch of civilians end up commanding the White Base since everyone else is dead. Everything about Amuro Ray makes sense, and everything he does we understand fully and completely because it has been either explained to us or the sequence of events follows a coherent and logical pattern that we could understand.

In the later Gundam series, the fancy super god device being piloted by a child poses and shoots and things blow up... yeah that’s compelling. Why can only a child pilot this thing? Just cause.

Gihren Zabi is space Hitler.
No really. 

The politics in Mobile Suit Gundam was complicated and interesting. The rebels of Zeon fought for their independence, for they disagree with the Earth Federation on a few things, most notable they wanted us to leave earth alone so that it could recover from humankinds’ abuse. So one of the primary motivators of the Zeon was a noble cause of environmentalism, and their requests to leave earth are not unreasonable since we see just how comfortable humankind has adjusted to living on space colonies. However the effects of war are brutal and hideous and the nature of space warfare makes the slaughtering of armies and colonies very easy. Both sides lose half their respective populations and those noble space environmentalists all of a sudden have far too much blood on their hands to feign moral superiority. Over time we learn of many noble men and women on both sides of the war, we also learn of several villains, and many of the villains are sympathetic, others... not so much. In the end the fictional reality that is the universal century is an intriguing and seemingly plausible world full of dynamic and realistic human beings. Except maybe space Hitler.

In Gundam Seed, and even worse so in the sequel Gundam Seed Destiny a immature child is given a god machine by his platonic space princess pop star girlfriend (why would you put an underage pop star in charge of a multi star system spanning civilization?) so he can force his childish world view onto the rest of humanity through unreasonable whinny demands and hideous hypocrisy. Kira, the child with the god machine Gundam that solves all his problems, even the ones it shouldn’t be able too, is a hypocrite. Kira shows up during battle and tells everyone why it is bad to kill and proceeds to murder just about everyone, sometimes the writer can’t ignore this and are force to have at least someone in the cast address this but once the concern of a mass murdering child is brought up it is quickly ignored, as if by saying nothing Kira has dismissed any doubts about his destructive actions.

In fairness I have never watched much of Gundam Wing, Gundam Seed or Seed Destiny, but everything I have even seen screamed childish. Now these shows are intended for young boys, so perhaps I am wrong to list immature storytelling and characters as a primary flaw, but I must insist that the original “Mobile Suit Gundam” has so much more to offer. The only advantages the later series seem to posses over the original is modern (albeit it lazy) animation, androgynous lead characters, and a self serving plot chartering to those before mentioned blank characters. I nearly got through a montage episode of Gundam Seed, a recap episode that explained the dynamics of the war’s politics. Even though the episode was clearly created to give us viewers the message that Kira and his pals were the good guys and that we should route for them I felt the exact opposite. The writing was so bad that ever claim the heroes made was in direct contradiction with words and actions made by those characters, but they were right just because. But wait, right about what? Right about picking fights and killing people and then saying that fighting is bad? I must be missing something... but I don’t think I am. Again to be fair I have never seen Gundam Wing, Gundam Seed or Seed Destiny in their entirety.

Yoshiyuki Tomino is a great writer. He wrote a fantastic science fiction anime known as “Mobile Suit Gundam,” the direct sequal “Zeta Gundam” also written by Tomino is also really good, and “Turn A Gundam” a last hurray by Tomino to give the Gundam series a respectful end is also very well written and intellectually satisfying. The contrast I see in writing between past and present Gundam is very eye opening to just how much has changed. The marketing machine of selling toys has won and every cheap trick imaginable and unimaginable has been employed to dupe young people into buying toys and accepting incoherent subpar story telling. Observing this drop in quality of writing is significant, not just to the genre of anime and the Gundam mythology, but more so to the life and times of Yoshiyuki Tomino. Tomino in many ways is a tortured soul, his career, his passion for writing was being perverted by Bandi’s motives to make a buck and these capital forces influencing his work would cause Tomino to suffer from depression which in turn can be seen in his writings, but I’ll explain more about that when I talk about “Space Runaway Ideon.”

Various Violent Anime

Another friend of mine wanted anime recommendation, specifically violent ones.  Here is my thorough response.

Fist of the North Star: 

I have never seen “First of the North Star” but here is what I know about it. Inspired by “Mad Max,” and Bruce Lee our hero Kenshiro wonders the wastelands of a post apocalyptic world brutally killing bad guys. The famous Kenshiro line of “you are already dead,” actually was used under two different circumstances, first, it was a bold threat that whoever he was fighting had no chance of walking away alive, and second, he would use a fancy punch that would cause people to explode, so they had yet realize that they were dead.

The first time anyone ever held a real life funeral for a fictional character was when Kenshiro finally killed his older brother. Japan is weird but sometimes awesome.

Berserker:

Guts, what a nice looking fellow

Oh shit I haven’t seen this one either. Guts the berserker is a very big strong dude wielding a huge broadsword and he kills a lot of people. I don’t know the plot but Guts is often considered the manliest anime character of all time and “Berserker” is often cited as one of the most violent. 

Ninja Scroll: 

Watch out! That mother fucker
ain't dead yet.

Inspired by the life of real life folk hero Jubei Yagyu, “Ninja Scroll” is a fantastically well written story with solid characters and lightning fast ninja action. Jubei Kibagami is a ninja who ends up forced to help a government spy in fighting the eight devils of Kimon, each one of which has crazy powers. The creativity that went into the villains’ powers and the way Jubei manages to defeat each one is highly imaginative and exciting, also very violent at times. “Ninja Scroll” was made in 1993 but is probably still the best action themed anime ever. 

The folk story of Jubei Yagyu is about how when the Christians came to Japan they did not just bring their evil Christina magic with them, they also brought their devil, and Jubei was the man who beat him up. The character of Jubei Yagyu has been portrayed multiple times in Japanese cinema including a performance by Sonny Chiba in “Samurai Reincarnation.” 

“Ninja Resurrection” is the anime about Jubei Yagyu and I’m not sure they ever finished it. “Samurai Resurrection,” is a really good live action movie about Jubei Yagyu, he battles Miyamoto Musashi’s ghost at one point in it.

Devil Man: 

If Osamu Tezuka was the godfather of anime than Go Nagai is the perverted uncle no one ever talks about. “Devil Man” was Nagai’s idea of combining western super heroes with horror movies. He was fascinated with the idea of a demon possessed by a man, the opposite of being possessed by a demon, this “Devil Man” could be a super hero whose powers stemmed from evil but were used for good. This may not sound like too original of an idea now (Spawn), but back in 1972 when “Devil Man” was created it sure as hell was. The two part OVA “Devil Man” is very graphic, and the follow up “Apocalypse of Amon” is perhaps even more brutal and is definitely more tragic and heart breaking. 

Rob Zombie is a fan of “Devil Man” and in the song “Super Charger Heaven” he is referring to Go Nagai’s “Devil Man,” with the lyrics:

“Devil man, devil man, calling,
Devil man, running in my head, yeah.”

Stay away from the 2004 live action movie it is terrible and was the winner of multiple Bunshun Kichigo Awards (the Japanese equivalent of The Razzies Awards). “Devil Man” won worst movie among other things. 

Here's a fan made video of Devil with White Zombies' "Super Charger Heaven"

New Getter Robo: 

It is hard to recommend which Getter Robo to watch since the idea has been rehashed and recreated multiple times with multiple sequels. “New Getter Robo” was the most recent and perhaps the least complicated of the bunch. The Getter Robo is another Go Nagai creation where a three piece robot is powered by human aggression. There are three main characters.

Ryoma is a short tempered street brawling martial artists who fearlessly takes loans from the mob knowing (in fact looks forward too) them coming to collect so he can brutally beat them to death.

Hayato is a mass murdering terrorist who may or may not want to destroy the world, in his introduction scene in “New Getter Robo” he claws a man’s eyes out and this dialogue occurs.

“Ah! My eyes!”

“And ears!”

And then Hayato slices off both the man’s ears in with a single attack using both hands. He then proceeds to beat the man’s face in with one finger punches.

Then we have Musashi who is something of a barbarian and simpleton. Musashi is probably the closest thing to a sane person we have in this cartoon.

So yeah some lunatic thought it would be a good idea to give these maniacs a giant robot. In the end when the bad guys reveal that they are not bad guys but rather humans from the future who have been ruined by the getter rays. After this reveal I believe the response from the getter team is something to the effect “Fuck you! We don’t care! Let’s keep fighting!”

So yeah that’s a fun one

I couldn't find the video of Hayato slicing a man's ears off with his bear hands, but here is the opening clip to "Shin Getter Robo Vs Neo Getter Robo - The Movie" where Musashi saves the world from the dinosaur empire:

Violence Jack: 

Looks pretty violent to me

You know I’ve never seen this one, but it is Go Nagai, it is the theoretical sequel to “Devil Man,” and “violence” is in the title so I’m going to have to assume it is pretty damn violent. If Go Nagai feels the need to use the adjective “violent” to describe something it must be insanely violent.

Elfen Lied:

I’ve talked about Elfen Lied (German for Elf Song) a lot lately, read about it here: http://colinkellydreams.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-mirror-elfen-lied.html

In the meantime here is the most upsetting scene in the entire series:

Space Runaway Ideon: 

I don’t consider “Space Runaway Ideon” to be particularly violent and many people think I’m sick for not begin perturb even a little through the course of these series where EVERYONE DIES! I’ll end up writing a whole report about Ideon one day because I’m enjoying it so much, and admittedly there are some outstanding moments in Ideon that make it pretty damn over the top in the violence department. As mentioned a moment ago EVERYONE DIES, including the children on board the Ideon’s spaceship the Solo ship, one of them, a five year old girl gets her entire head removed by a laser blast, and not long after that the universe blows up. No big deal right?

I guess the violence is plentiful in “Space Runaway Ideon,” but it is not the violence I was paying attention to, I was enthralled with the great story which involved characters I really liked and the horror surrounding the unravelling mystery of the power of the Ideon.

This is the series that earned writer Yoshiyuki Tomino the nick name “Kill them all Tomino.” I love “Kill them all Tomino,” he’s a really good writer.

Here's a video containing every death and Easter egg with some really nice happy music:

Claymore: 

Not a particularly good anime, but certainly a violent one. The world of “Claymore” is one where humankind coexists with demons who want nothing more than to eat us, the best solution we have come up with so far is to turn our own into demon altered warriors. By placing the blood of a demon, or flesh, or something, they never fully explain the procedure, we can gain demonic like strength and power. While this may sound a lot like the “Devil Man” premise it is different enough to be considered more or less wholly original. There is no possession involved nor can someone grow stronger by killing other demons. But the demonic touch does heighten aggressive behavior and men being the more violent half of the species prove too unstable to use the power reliably. That’s why all of our heroes are blonde haired blue eyed women; well that doesn’t explain why they are all blonde haired or blue eyes but whatever. I assume the creator really likes blonde blue eyed women so that was the art direction they took; I don’t think any real racist undertones deliberately exist in “Claymore.”

So yeah “Claymore” is violent. There is a strong reoccurring theme of people losing limbs. I mean there must be like forty severed arms in this series.

Higurashi – When They Cry:

This was the anime that made my friends accuse me of being a freak in love with murder, and if not for that accusation I never would have thought to include it on a list of violent anime. You see I don’t think Higurashi is violent, because the violence is never graphic, most of it is implied. When Kechie beats two girls to death with a baseball bat we see he swing and swing like a maniac and we see blood splatter on the walls but we never see the damage done to the girls. When Shion is stabbing Satako to death and laughing manically while doing so, we see Satako cry and scream and we see blood splatter onto Shion but we never actually see the knife going in. Scenes like that sound horrible and what is being implied to us is terrifying but the actual violence we see is minimal. The story captures us in Higurashi, it is all about paranoia and seeing our characters, all of which are all really likable, mentally break, then cross the line, and then do unforgivable things, that’s what so fascinating about Higurahi.

“Higurashi – When They Cry” is a psychological thriller, but there are a lot of things that would put a lot of people off. Of our main cast of friends five out of the six of them are female and we see all of them die multiple gruesome deaths, and as stated in my essay about “Elfen Lied,” there is something so very unsettling about the murder of females and children and that happening multiple times in Higurashi can upset a lot of people. Also the art style is obnoxiously “Moe.” For those of you who don’t know, which would include me before watching Higurashi, “Moe” (pronounced: mo-eh) is the anime style of bright colorful hair and big, big eyes. Basically really cutie pie bullshit, and Higurashi is all about that art style, and everything being all cutesy makes it all the more shocking seeing them brutally die.

Higurashi is too violent and dark for the faint of heart and too cute and girly for the thick skinned, I may be the only person I ever know who enjoyed it.

The famous door scene:

Hellsing:

What if Dr. Van Hellsing didn’t kill Dracula? What if instead he forced him to fight supernatural evil on behalf of the British government? What if this Dracula was a smirking, uncooperative, violently lunatic, who wielded giant bad ass guns that only he, with his super vampire strength, could use? I’m glad someone asked these questions otherwise we never would have gotten an anime as crazy as “Hellsing.”

I cannot in honesty say that “Hellsing” is particularly good, because it isn’t, but it is one of those wonky, silly shows that we all really enjoy because it is so way over the top. We don’t even see a legitimate threat to the hero Alucard (who is obviously Dracula) until the final episode, and even then there is no suspense, we all know Alucard is going to kill Incognito both brutally and smugly. The support cast die off constantly to the point where I can’t remember any of their names unless they were one of three characters who actually matter other than Alucard. The villains never die easy they all get torn to shreds, which proves to be surprisingly easy for Alucard to do. Whenever Alucard is injured he just laughs it off, and this includes things like being beheaded or reduced to vampire soup.

Yeah “Hellsing” is a violent one.

Batman - Recommendations

Batman is more than just a super hero.  He is the man who walks among gods.

A friend of mine asked me to recommend some Batman stories for him to read, here is a thorough response.

5 Must Read Batman Titles:

The Dark Knight Returns:

Writer: Frank Miller  

Frank Miller makes Batman a badass again after the silliness of the silver age and the goofy television series  made him out to be a colorful odd ball.

Batman is old, angry and mean, but he comes out of retirement because the world needs Batman, and so does Bruce Wayne.

Often considered the best Batman story ever.

   

Batman - Year One:

Writer: Frank Miller

Frank Miller again, I have not read it but everyone keeps telling me I should.

Batman - RIP:

Writer: Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison is fucking amazing. This is meant to be the final case of Batman, his greatest feat and a challenge so great it would change him forever.  It involves betrayal, conspiracy, mass organized crime, Batman being betrayed, drugged, going crazy, and doing amazing things.  It's a great read.

Batman - Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader/The Return of Bruce Wayne: 

Writer: Neil Gaiman/Grant Morrison

After being destroyed by Darkseid in Final Crisis we learn that Bruce Wayne was not just killed but multi-killed. Darkseid banished Bruce Wayne through time to die over and over again endlessly until he could return to the world from whence he came as a time bomb, literally. Grant Morrison does an amazing job of building the mythology of Batman in these comics and Neil Gaiman does an excellent job showcasing what Batman means in literature as he witnesses an infinite number of his own funeral with each death as heroic as the last and all of them so very human. “I am just man; I do what I can to help my allies when everything they touch becomes legend.”

Batman – The Killing Joke: 

Writer: Alan Moore 

All of Alan Moore’s best work was done under creative restraints by publishers, and not too surprisingly DC comics would not let him fuck up Batman. This story gives us more insight into the Joker than Batman, but Moore does a good job of only giving us the vaguest of hints as to who or what the Joker really is. This is also the story where Barbra Gordon is shot in the spine and paralyzed ending her career as Batgirl forever.

 

5 Historically Important Batman stories: 

Batman: A Death in the Family: 

Writer: Jim Sterling

“A Death in the Family” is the story of the death of Jason Todd. While a lot of the shock value of seeing Robin die has worn off with time it is still an interesting read just to see how it went down.

Batman - Venom: 

Writer: Dennis O’Neil 

Something of a prelude to the Bane saga, Batman experiments with the Venom drug to help to fight crime. A little ham-fisted in the “say no to drugs” message but good reading regardless, also gives some context to the future Bane character.

Batman - Knightfall: 

Writer: Various 

“Knightfall” is much too long to really be enjoyable throughout, but still a very important story to the history of Batman. This is the story of Bane “breaking” Batman, which is kind of a big deal. Batman’s defeat and return are great, the entire second act where Bruce Wayne is replaced with the forgettable and ultra 90s John Paul Valley is painful to get through however.

Batman – Tales of the Demon: 

Writer: Dennis O’Neil 

Ra’s Al Ghul translates into “The Demon’s Head,” this is the story that introduces Ra’s and his daughter Talia. I have never read it but I know the gist of it and it does sound really cool. If you ever wanted to know more about Ra’s and Talia this would probably be the best place to look.   

Justice League of America – Tower of Babel: 

Writer: Mark Waid

While technically not a Batman title this is a great character story for Batman. Ra’s Al Ghul manages to hack into Batman’s computers and learns all his secrets, and Batman’s secrets go far beyond just Bruce Wayne. Al Ghul learns all about the rest of the Justice League including Batman’s contingency plans to defeat them if they ever turn against him. Mark Waid is a great author and his does a great job of showing both the cruel distrust Batman shows towards his friends as well as a somewhat justifiable paranoia. Also the plots Batman has hatched to defeat the super humans that are his friends are just so creative, this is the story that made people start saying that Batman could beat Galactus under the pen of Mark Waid.

5 other things where Batman is really important or awesome:

Kingdom Come: 

Writer: Mark Waid & Alex Ross

Possibly the best story to ever be told in comic books, while that may seem like a bold claim, and admittedly it is, I need to somehow find the right words to convey just how great of a title “Kingdom Come” is, and declaring it as a possible best ever is the best way to do that. While more of a Superman story, Batman is a major player. Superman struggles to understand his leadership role in the future when the next generation of super humans number in the thousands and no longer have a clear direction. Batman is jaded and haggard and practically crippled from his years of fighting super villains, he is the human voice to Superman’s god like voice. “Kingdom Come” is a great story, amazing art, and my personal favorite.

Justice:

Writer: Jim Krueger & Alex Ross

“Justice” is a fully fledged Justice League story. This is a story that captures the heroics of the Silver age of the DC universe. Every great hero from that era comes out and does what they do best, save the world from the Legion of Doom. There are few comics in existence that show the heroes (and villains) as much respect as “Justice” this is what these characters are supposed to be, they may struggle but they are great people with amazing powers capable of doing the greatest of things. If you are at all interested in introducing yourself to the DC universe beyond Batman this would be a good place to start. Alex Ross’s artwork once again looks beautiful.

Final Crisis: 

Writer: Grant Morrison

Curious how Batman ended up dead in “Batman – Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader” and “Batman - The Return of Bruce Wayne” then read “Final Crisis.” “Final Crisis” was the last universe wide team up story DC produced. Morrison does an amazing job of making Jack Kirby’s New Gods of Apocalypse a little more coherent for the average reader but compromises none of the poetry. “There was a war in heaven and evil won, and it may sound strange but they are inside all of us.” All the heroes unite and it is awesome. Batman stands up to gods and it is awesome!

Everything Bruce Tim ever made: 

Bruce Tim is the man responsible for the 1990s cartoon adaptation of Batman, Superman and the Justice League (unlimited). If you haven’t already watched the entire Batman series do it, it may well be the best Batman ever. If you want something more, watch the three seasons of Superman and the four seasons of Justice League, they are awesome!

The Christopher Nolan Movies: 

This is a really cool fan made movie poster I found online at
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/rorschachsrants/news/?a=61698

Duh!

Anime Girls - Duel of Duality

Recently I was subjected to the comedy/soft porn anime “Rosario + Vampire.” When the character Moka was revealed to essentially be two people I made the remark, “so we are doing the girl with one side childlike the other dangerous thing again are we?” I was asked to explain how many anime I had seen with this, because I boldly estimated a figure of roughly ONE THOUSAND!

How let us be clear here, I clearly said there must be ONE THOUSAND anime with the female characters with dual personality as a deliberate exaggeration, and my primary point is that this idea has been done before, MANY TIMES.

I did I quick search online and here is a list of anime girls with dual personalities;

Moka Akashiya from “Rosario + Vampire”
Lucy / Nyu from “Elfen Lied”
Pai Ayanokoji / The Sanjiyan from “3X3 Eyes”
Yumie / Yumiko from “Hellsing”
Harumi Chrono / Maria from “Paranoia Agent”
Koyomi Yuimachi / Yomi from “Zombie Loan”
Lady Une from “Mobile Suit Gundam Wing”
Lunch from “Dragon Ball”
Momoka Nizhizawa from “Sgt. Frog”
Sowoko Yumanka from “K-On!”
Shiro from “Deadman Wonderland”
Suzuho Hasegowa from “Magician’s Academy”
Yayu Higuchi / Nana from “Othello”
Lisette Vertorre from “Eleven Eyes”

I did not include on the list Run Elsie Jewelria (To Love-Ru) and Ranma Saotome (Ranma ½), since their metamorphisms is a purely physical one. In both examples their gender is switched, but they are still the same personality regardless of the body they are stuck in.

It should be noted that in this list I have seen only ever seen five of these anime and only two of those in their entirety. Furthermore of the three anime that I have only partially watched I never encountered two of the female character in question. In the brief time I spent looking at lists online of anime characters with split personalities I never once saw mention of Pai the Sanjiyan from “3X3 Eyes,” which in my opinion is one of the most obvious. What does this tell us? First, my basic working knowledge is not qualified to make a proper or thorough analysis on the matter under scientific standards to properly calculate an exact figure of how reoccurring this trend is. Second, even with my limited knowledge I was able to know of one very strong example that others, much more knowledgeable than myself on the subject matter, seemed to remember. Basically what I am saying is if we really wanted too we could expand this list easily.

The presented list is only fourteen, a far cry from a thousand I suppose, still enough to point out the reoccurring theme of characters with split personalities. A multiple personality disorder is too well known of a complex and too tempting a plot device to expect writers, regardless of genre, to ignore. So it only makes sense we would see this reoccurring theme in anime. We could probably just as easily compile a list just as long of females with split personalities in comic books or soap operas. However there is something more significant that was intended by my comment of “oh this again,” whilst watching “Rosario + Vampire.”

I have seen Moka’s personality split before twice, both times in anime.

I cannot say what the other eleven personalities on the list are like, but I suspect they are very different from Moka. Some of them sounded to be serious examples of the discomfort or horror of someone walking around with two or more set of thoughts and ambitions running around in their brain. While some sounded like they were very small adjustments in personality, as in, in order to have the courage to show off their true feelings the character would feel the need to don an alter ego. An alter ego is not a split personality, not really, Bruce Wayne doesn’t grapple with whether he is Batman or Bruce Wayne; he is both. Swamp Thing however did have that problem, but let’s not get too far off topic. Lunch from “Dragon Ball,” whom I have no recollection of, sounds very similar as far as basic premise, but Lunch is not a very important character I gather, she is not the female lead, or lead love interest, where as Pai Ayanokoji and Lucy / Nyu have identical story significance to Moka Akashiya.

He earned that kiss!

Pai is a Sanjiyan (Triclops) and the last of her kind. Yakumo Fujii inherits the responsibility of looking after Pai while she is in human mode. While the third eye on Pai head is closed she is young, naive, innocent... stupid, and utterly useless, hence why she needs a generic male protagonist to look after her, that is until she opens her third eye. Pai's alternative personality is the Sanjiyan, and when in her sanjiyan mode Pai shows her age (the character is suppose to be very old, like over a hundred years). The Sanjiyan is cold and ruthless; she does not care about anyone. She is no nonsense, and is very, very powerful. In order to make Yakumo not completely useless she steals his soul and turns him into a zombie. As a zombie servant to the Sanjiyan, Yakumo can survive any injury, and the writers abuse the hell out of this gimmick. Every episode of “3X3 Eyes,” Yakumo is getting the unholy hell beat out of him. On numerous occasions he is shot, gets limbs torn off, and even gets torn to pieces. It is pretty cool how Yakumo adjusts to this and becomes utterly fearless, by the third episode he is charging into battles against armed men and gigantic monsters knowing there is literally nothing they can do to him. Yakumo always gets smashed around until Pai opens her third eye and fixes everything. “3x3 Eyes,” was pretty good. 

Lucy is a Diclonii, a mutated human that has horns and four invisible/intangible physic arms that can tear people to pieces. Lucy is also a psychotic mass murderer, read more about her and “Eflen Lied,” here;   http://colinkellydreams.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-mirror-elfen-lied.html

It is hard to forgive a mass murderer monster,
still she is still way more likable than Nyu.

However after suffering a nearly fatal gunshot wound to the head and washing up on shore and being rescued by our other two main characters Lucy is not present, she has become “Nyu.” Nyu is a functionally retarded child that perverts would love. Lucy is a ruthless murderer and Nyu is the childlike, innocent alter ego, the two extremes are a not so subtle way to show us just how damaged and tortured Lucy is. This is done in an effort to make us feel for Lucy, and they fail to do so, as far as I’m concerned in the anime, but I have high hopes for the manga which I am very slowly reading. 

Moka as a human/child.  Cute?

Moka Akashiya is a vampire, but... as long as she is wearing her rosary (it is actually an ornamental cross, but whatever) she is young, sweet and innocent, or childlike if you will. However when the cross is removed Moka turns into her true self (or other self I’m not sure which) which is more mature, more badass, and more frankly more vampire. Also her tits grow and since this is a comedy, why the hell not? But when you think about it a more serious, more mature, version of the same girl it may actually make sense that she would be more “developed.” She is more of a “woman” in this form, so a strengthening of her secondary sex characteristics actually makes sense. I’m reading into this though, the bigger boobs are obviously just a gag. 

Moka as a vampire/adult.  Sexy?

My point is this;

Pai, Nyu and human Moka are all sweet, innocent, stupid girls. While the Sanjiyan, Lucy and vampire Moka are all intelligent, powerful, dangerous women. They are all the primary female character and love interest to their generic male protagonist counterpart. They all have some “awakening” that causes their repeated transformation from one form to the other. They are all human and yet not human, and all of their human sides are weak and useless and in need of someone to protect them, while their inhuman side is a serious danger to all those around them. While the three inhuman sides of their characters are more or less unique, Pai being a mystic humanoid and last of her kind, Lucy being a desperate, angry, hunted animal, and Moka being a badass vampire, the purpose of these identities as far as the plot is concerned is the same. They are all depicted as tragic romantic characters because their inhuman side demands a lifestyle or destiny that prevents them from embracing the love they have found in their respected love interests. Meanwhile their human sides are essentially identical both in story purpose and personality. Basically the same character all three times.

Only in anime have I seen this specific character concept. So we are doing this again?

I think this is symbolic to some kind of power male fantasy; characters like Moka are a conquest relationship, a difficult woman to tame because of just how powerful she is. But I feel there is something more to be said here. The everyman that is the true protagonist in these stories is meant to be us, you know, every man  We are supposed to feel that we can tame a powerful woman, that no matter how powerful she is, she is still a sweet thing that just needs to be loved. I am sure some feminist somewhere is reading way too much into this and is completely losing her fucking mind, but this character arc is a charming one. With the exception of the most cold hearted bitches in the world everyone woman wants to be loved, just like every man.

One thing women like to hold over men’s heads is the “the boy inside,” the notion that men don’t grow up, and this appears true when you focus on the male tendency to ogle boobs, continue to love things from our childhood, and a unnecessary sense of competition, but women are just as guilty. A good number of women are guilty of being sensitive and well... childlike in their needs. Most powerful women still want someone to protect them when they are feeling weak. These are general sentiments not absolute, I am just saying even the strongest of men and women can be sensitive. Even the wisest of us can be youthful, or immature if you prefer to be judgemental. Woman who are powerful and wise... even inhuman I guess, are still women, they still want a man to do all the things a man is expected to do for them, you know, care for them, love them, and protect them.

I will probably never produce a thousand examples of female dual personality in anime, but I suspect someone other than me can think of a few more examples of female protagonist that are either identical or nearly identical to the three discussed here today. Furthermore I highly suspect we will see other characters like Moka in the future. The multiple personality disorder is just too much fun and in fiction we have the freedom to exaggerate the extremes of our characters personalities, and what better way to do that than to have one of the personalities a sweet loving girl and the other a inhuman powerhouse?

Dedicated to Peter Brown.