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KYOTO VIDEO 2024 Quarterly Report (Nov - Jan)

Published: November 7th 2024, 10:00:05 pm

Virgin Fleet – November 16th

I feel like I’ve been a little too accommodating to some of the anime I’ve been watching lately. Therefore, in the interest of balancing things out, let’s talk about some crap! We travel back to 1998 (The Worst Year in Anime) and unearth the rightfully forgotten alt-history OVA Virgin Fleet. You would think that a three-episode OVA that comes from the minds behind Sakura Wars and Giant Robo would be awesome, right? But alas, what we get is an anime that’s stupid, ugly-looking and, quite frankly, a little fascist.

The Girl from Phantasia – November 30th

The Great November Mid-Off does not stop there. The anime industry is no stranger to ripping off the successes that emerge from it. So, let’s a take a look at one of the attempts to try and bring an Urusei Yatsura-type anime into the 90s. See if 1993’s The Girl from Phantasia succeeds in that tall order and learn about the big time studio that was behind it all (the answer will shock you).

Unico in the Island of Magic – December 17th

Before I head off on my holiday break, let’s check in on our cute lil friend Unico. Going wherever the West Wind takes him, we’ll experiencing his 2nd and final feature film 1983’s Unico in the Island of Magic. Does its big budget psychedelia improve on the first adventure? All I know is that more cute and sad animals are gonna be there!

Transformers: Scramble City – January 14th

I may have mentioned this in a video before but did you know the Transformers franchise originated in Japan? Okay, not news to most Transformers fans, but I was able to find an anime that gives me an opportunity to actually explore that side of the intellectual property. That would be 1986’s Transformers: Scramble City, the short but meaningful Japanese-only entry. We’ll take a look at it and see how it reflects a storied franchise’s history  

Patlabor: The Motion Picture – January 31st

We round out this year of videos by checking back in on the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Special Vehicle Section 2, Division 2 and their first outing on to the big screen: 1989’s Patlabor: The Motion Picture. See how this grand sci-fi action blockbuster holds up after 35 years and how it may act as the bridge Mamorou Oshii’s 80s period and his 90s period.