Reviews
Hi no tori 2772: Ai no kosumozôn (1980)
Awesome story if you can live past the shoddy delivery
Please note that I am judging from the English dub VHS, which I was lucky enough to discover in a pawn shop. Phoenix 2772 was a movie by Osamu Tezuka, inspired by his "Hi no Tori" series of comics (which were a series of short stories spanning centuries which were connected by the concept of the legendary Phoenix), which features a young man named Gadoh who, after having a run-in with the law, escapes the earth in order to capture the Phoenix, and ends up going through a trial of self-discovery.
You kind of have to understand the author and have a really open mind (and a tolerance for less-than-stellar delivery--more on that later). Osamu Tezuka was not your average manga author: He wasn't content to just tell stories of heroes and villains, but of deep characters with human personalities. His stories usually had some form of moral to them, but he didn't hamfist it or deliver it in a package, like in a Disney cartoon, but rather told sweeping, epic stories wrapped around the point he was trying to convey, but delivered in such a way where it was never shoved down your throat. Moreover, he felt stories shouldn't be limited to feel-good adventures or comedy, and thus most of his stuff had a very emotional quality to it. I personally feel Phoenix 2772 delivered on that.
Yes, the film won't immediately make sense if you go in, expecting a Disney-esquire song and dance number with a lot of feel-good moments and a "good guys always win" message. What instead needs to happen is that one needs to forget how things "should" work and instead prepare for anything. With an open mind and a little bit of thought, the story of this film makes perfect sense.
The weak point is one that's not a fault of the story or the creator, but rather of the translators: The English dub is bad. Mouths move, yet no one is talking. The voice actors sound like they're trying to sound natural, but forget that they're voice acting for an animated movie, so we have moments where mouths are moving yet no one is talking, and things like that. One flaw I particularly noticed is that the Phoenix of the title is always referred to as "272" instead of "2772," and no one could quite decide how to pronounce the main character's name (is it Godah, Gadoh, Gardoh, etc.) But... if you can overlook this and you can stand films that require you to think instead of just delivering all the answers to you on a silver platter, then this one is worth a try, even if you can only find the English dub version (which DOES seem to have been edited).
Codename: Kids Next Door (2002)
Was Good, But Lost Its Luster...
I got into this show while the first season was in reruns, but before the second season began airing. The show had promise. It was amusing, the characters were fun, cute, charming, and seemed to have dynamic personalities. The plot couldn't be taken seriously, but then it wasn't supposed to be--the show was a comedy after all.
In the second season things started to change. Mainly I felt the writers began taking the show too seriously and trying to play up the more "serious" aspects, while the comedy became more tame and "forced" sounding, causing it to be less funny. Moreover, the characters began to shed their charm and personality in favor of adhering to some classic stereotype, and often the show loved to shove its "obviousness" down your throat. For example, Numbuh Four got the distinction of being "the stupid one." Afterwards, every last line the character spoke seemed meant to showcase his stupidity--even going so far as to misspell four-letter words. Numbuh Three used to like stuffed toys, but became a fan of Rainbow Monkeys in particular, and every episode she was in she had to mention Rainbow Monkeys at least once.
In the third season, things totally hit the dirt. The show became so full of itself that every little idea had to be beat into the viewer's head. Rainbow Monkeys were no longer Numbuh Three's private obsession--everyone except Numbuh Four liked them, and they were a key theme in nearly every episode. Numbuh Four's stupidity got shoved even more down our throats. Characters and ideas you were sick of by this point would recur on a regular basis. The budding romance between Numbuhs Three and Four was made so obvious that it became almost a torture to watch, making me just want to say "Okay, they're in love, we get it already!" Since then, not only have the above problems continued to get worse, but we've also had travesties such as musical episodes, and the show began making regular use of one of the most overused clichés on Cartoon Network: Random, out-of-nowhere child nudity. It went from being promising to being a trite humdrum brainkiller that talks down to its audience. It has lost its value.
Animaniacs (1993)
I Guess I'm Not the Target Audience
As a child, I watched this show after school, but never found it really "funny." But I was a kid at the time, and I liked anything as long as it was animated.
Now as an adult, I can't watch this show. Not because I "outgrew" it--in fact, I still watch MANY of my childhood favorites--but because I now understand that, to me at least, this show was just BAD.
The problem, in my opinion, is simply that the show is too repetitive, and relies heavily on formulas and trademark gags and phrases. For this reason, if you've seen at least ten episodes of this show, then you've pretty much seen everything this show has to offer. Tiny Toons was better, but only because it didn't depend on a formula.
Yu-Gi-Oh! (2000)
An Example of How a Faulty Translation Can Ruin a Good Show
A lot of people tell me that the quality of the dub doesn't matter, but the criticism Yu-Gi-Oh has gotten is proof that this just is not true. Many of the critics of Yu-Gi-Oh bash it for reasons that apply only to the English version.
I know this for a fact, as I have seen both versions. I not only bear but enjoy the Japanese version, but when I see the same episodes in English, I quickly want to change the channel.
If there is a fault with this show, it is that you can't get the full story from the show alone. To do that, you have to read the graphic novels. This TV series skips right to the "Duelist Kingdom" story arc (which originally started in the seventh/eighth graphic novel, skipping 6-7 books worth of story), with some details filled in by flashbacks, and other story arcs from the comics being rewritten to fit into the revised storyline. The reason for this skip was twofold. First, the older volumes were handled by another "Yu-Gi-Oh" anime (which is owned by a different company and thus was not licensed for US distribution), and second, most of the early story lines actually did not involve the card game, whereas in this anime, the card game is the main thrust of the series.
Despite this, "Yu-Gi-Oh" is a good, fun show, albeit rather mindless at times. The main appeal of this series is simply in the suspense of the duels. Yes, the good guys almost always win (but to quell the critics, there ARE in fact times where the good guys actually lose duels), however because it's based around a fictitious card game, the duels could go any number of ways. Some episodes stick strictly to cards we've seen before, while others surprise the viewer (or make him feel cheated) by the surprise introduction of a never-before-seen card.
Complimenting this is the characters. The show involves Yugi, an inverted boy who, as the series goes on, becomes more confident in himself with the help of an ancient spirit trapped in a pendant Yugi wears around his neck. Early on, this spirit will take over Yugi's body in order to see him and his friends through dangerous situations, but later Yugi and the spirit begin to work together to solve problems. Yugi also has friends in the form of Jonouchi, Honda, and Anzu (known as Joey, Tristan, and Tea in the US version), and the friendship between them (particularly Yugi and Joey) is one of the central thrusts of the show--several times, these characters have to risk their lives or make huge personal sacrifices for each other, including events such as Jonouchi having to rescue Yugi from a burning building, or Yugi letting bullies beat him up so they'll leave his friends alone. Things like this are what makes the series strong.
However, most of this had to be either toned down or completely removed from the US version, leaving us with a mere marketing ploy that is devoid of most of its substance, though fortunately a few of these quality moments DID survive the transition.
4Kids recently allowed the release of three Uncut DVDs of Yu-Gi-Oh, DVDs which include the original Japanese episodes with an option for English subtitles. These DVDs cover the first nine episodes, and I strongly IMPLORE anyone who has a negative view of this show to watch these volumes and give the show a second chance before passing a final judgment.