Change Your Image
boonewilliams
Reviews
Fushigi no Umi no Nadia (1990)
schizo, but fun!
i bought a package of various bootleg anime series (bad, i know) and spent a few months muddling my way through them all. some were really good (pretear, love hina) some grew on me (macross 7) and some flat-out stunk. (to heart, and ironically, the series for which i bought the bundle, angelic layer) i approached them all with a certain amount of skepticism and nadia was no different. the story takes place in the 1880's and spent its first few minutes placing the viewer within the frame of the times. however, a few minutes later the story introduces the villains/heroes known as the grandis gang and their apparent mastery of a level of technology unavailable now 100 years later. so if anachronisms and anthropomorphisms bug you, nadia won't appeal to you.
as the plot develops, the characters take on depth and voice and you can't help but be charmed. the story becomes complicated and textured and not a little dark. then suddenly the first act closes and the second begins by abruptly changing from a tense drama into a wile e. coyote cartoon. then as soon as you settling into the admittedly funny and loopy island adventures, the series swiftly switches back into its formerly dramatic theme. so if wild swings in tone bug you, nadia won't appeal to you.
can a series flip and twist back and forth between drama and slap-stick comedy and still work? watch nadia for yourself and you be the judge. i found myself forgiving its flaws because it created characters i cared about, who seemed to have the depth to consider who they themselves were and what motivated them. the series lovingly embraces its characters flaws rather then exploiting them. (as was the case in evangelion, also by hideki anno) i forgave the surreality of the plot because it had the profound insight and courage to craft REAL teenagers. (i know a real kid who in his loving teenage cluelessness could have written jean's painfully funny "nadia" song) i especially appreciated the fact that marry's 5-year-old character wasn't nearly as obnoxious as she could have been. nadia could have been done differently, eliminating either its most serious moments or its most ridiculous, but it might not have been the same.
somewhere between the wide swings of our own pendulum is where real life happens.
p.s. there is a movie. it stinks, and adds nothing to anyone or anything in the story. resist the temptation to find it or watch it.
Volunteers (1985)
classic pre-oscar tom hanks!
before they started winning oscars, struggling actors such as tom hanks and robin williams used to be... SURPRISE!! funny! volunteers is a great example of a movie that refuses to take its leading actors seriously and is all the better for it. this is not a "star vehicle" but is rather an irreverant tongue-in-cheek romp. it takes its cues from saturday night live, sctv, monty python, and cheesy off-broadway one-act plays. in return, it is spoofed by one particular hollywood blockbuster to follow, austin powers goldmember. mike myers must have been as impressed with the "reading the subtitles" joke, as well as the "asian guy on the toilet/being chased by sumo wrestler" schtick. but rather than beat the jokes to death, volunteers assumes we are smart enough to catch them on the fly. i bought this in a $5.00 dvd bin, and was reminded why i liked the movie so much in the first place. it is never particularly mean to any of its subjects, including the primitive thai villagers, the communist revolutionaries, yalies, jews, liberals, conservatives, or any of the other fringe elements put into play. as a result, volunteers doesn't insult me as an intelligent movie viewer. by the way, i had forgotten how humorously effective was the "lawrence's bar" scene where the local musician plinks out an oddly romantic version of "as time goes by" on an asian sitar.
volunteers is the sort of movie actors must do just for fun. y'know... when they're not too busy trying to win oscars.
Shinseiki Evangelion (1995)
ars gratia artis
i eagerly watched evangelion wanting to see what so many have heralded as "the greatest anime ever," and was largely disappointed. (i then watched "end of evangelion" and was even more so) it is a work of art, a true expression of its creator, and in that respect it succeeds. but flog me for thinking so, i like my anime to tell a good story, and i felt evangelion lost its way.
it begins well enough, with appealing characters, reasonable conflicts, and what seemed to be a natural course. i was willing to forgive the half-baked christian iconography in light of my slim background in philosophy and other religions. however, the storytelling suffers a severe melt-down and surrenders to eye grabbing imagery, incomprehensible dialogue and implausible plot development. in the end, is evangelion the story of youthful soldiers coming of age as seen through the framework of the larger conflict? is it the story of the larger conflict as seen through the eyes of the protagonists, i.e.: a "war is hell" story? is it a vivid showing of an individual's giddy descent into madness? is it a profound theo/philosophical allegory? heck, if you watched the first 5 episodes then skipped to the last two, would you have known you were watching the same series? if you can't tell, then the story hasn't been told well. i didn't have my heart set on a happy ending, a love story, or a tidy ending that ties all of the loose ends together. i can accept the creator's vision and respect his perseverance in presenting it the way he intended, but in the end, it wasn't entertaining, it wasn't enlightening, and it didn't live up to its potential in any way. it is art for art's sake, and that's fine, but that doesn't make it great.
Kidou tenshi enjerikku reiyâ (2001)
mortal combat barbie! it's violence... you know... for girls!
-WARNING!! HERE BE SPOILERS!!-
what seems like a charming anime on the outset becomes plagued with uncomfortable implications when delved into deeper.
the show is geared towards jr high aged girls and is about a game called "angelic layer" that is played with animated dolls, kind of like pokemon except that they're little person shaped robots. the dolls, called angels, fight, but don't bleed or appear to suffer major trauma. the main character is a 12 year old girl who's been raised by family since she was a young child, believing that her mom was kept away by work. she arrives in tokyo to live with her aunt and attend school and discovers this game in which she quickly gets involved. she turns out to have a natural talent and competes well in various tournaments. what she doesn't know is that her mom really left when she developed a degenerative nerve condition in her feet, and left to take part in bionic research which turned into "angelic layer" when funding for pure research wasn't forthcoming. the daughter moves up through the ranks of the game's elite players and reaches the world championships. although the mom knows the daughter is in the world championship, the daughter doesn't know that the defending champion is in fact her own mother until just before the final match. there is a big tearful reunion and immediately after, they proceed to beat the bejeezus out of each others' dolls in the final match.
the show is dominated by fight sequences between the dolls, and occasionally breaks away to attend to what might have been enlightening character development. in the final episode, i waited for the surprise ending where rather than fighting, the two dolls representing mother and daughter embrace and walk off the playing field as something less than champions, but far more profound than mere combatants. however, the message was that winning is everything, even if it means fighting the ones you love, even if you haven't seen said loved one in years. the message is that violence is okay as long as there is no blood, as long as the fighters are toys or something other than truly human. not to mention the theologically questionable aspect of referring to the dolls as "angels" and the users as "deus," literally translated as gods.
i had high hopes for "angelic layer" as it is in theory the prequel to the more maturely themed "chobits", which i enjoyed a great deal more. i fear that "angelic layer", in aiming for a less sophisticated audience, missed opportunities to be more meaningful.
Charles in Charge (1984)
Let's Hear It For Josie Davis!
Charles in Charge had one of the greatest premises for a sitcom ever: that grownups really DO understand, that they are human and fallible, yet reliable and caring. I have come to identify with the noble notion that as adults, we all have a responsibility to help the youth in our community through the rough spots in their lives. I found it excruciatingly ironic that Josie Davis, despite playing a role that revolved around "the beauty within," felt like the "ugly sister."
Several people have commented that the Jaimie character was their first crush, but I always thought Josie Davis was hands down the more beautiful of the two. Having seen her since on 90210, I gotta say, "YOWZA!" Was I right or what? Inner beauty rocks, and Josie's got it inside and out!