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KYOTO VIDEO Quarterly Report (May - Jul)

Published: May 7th 2023, 5:15:33 pm

Slayers Great – May 11th: The annual review of a slice of the Slayers franchise continues unabated. And this one is a really fascinating one. Running alongside the divisive Slayers TRY is the equally-divisive Slayers Great, a supremely silly Lina/Naga join that sees the Slayers franchise go mecha. Or at least their setting’s equivalent.

Graduation – May 26th: Graduation is an important time in every young person’s life and, in most anime set in high school, it’s an event of finality. This 1995 OVA based off a PC Enging CD game attempts to capture those feelings of transferring from one stage of life to the next through a group of cute anime girls going on an overnight hot springs trip. Does it succeed in convey these feeling or should it be held back for summer school?

Salamander – June 16th: During Konami exceptionally brief period as an OVA producer in the 80s, they did manage to squeak out a three-episode mini series based off of one of their arcade shmups: 1987’s Salamander. Can this Gradius spin-off transfer over from arcades to the TV screen or does it end up going down in flames?

One Piece: Defeat the Pirate Ganzak! – June 30th: Finally! I get the opportunity to talk about my favorite shonen anime of all time. And its gonna be about the very first One Piece animation ever committed to screen. Coinciding with its 25th anniversary, Defeat the Pirate Ganzak is the under-discussed pilot film for the One Piece anime. We’ll go over the history of the manga and anime before it became a franchise powerhouse and see what changes were made between this anime and the official anime released next year.

Burn Up W – July 14th: So remember Burn Up? That Bubblegum Crisis rip-off from the early 90s? Well its back in a different form. A much more louder and stupider form fit for the mid-90s. We’ll dive into 1996’s Burn Up W and see why successful does not always translate to “good”.

Street Fighter II: The Motion Picture – July 28th: I’ve delayed it long enough. With a brand new, hyped-up entry in the Street Fighter series coming out this summer, I have no choice but to talk about Street Fighter II: The Motion Picture. The film that set the bar high for future fighting adaptations and represented the peak of the franchise at that point. This is its history!

Thank you for your patience and keep stayin’ tuned!