Twice in one day? What gives?
May. 31st, 2002 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksI know, I know. But occasionally one has to babble. This is about to go Very, Very Anime at everyone, so ignore it if you're not into that-- or read it anyway, smile, nod, and assume I said something witty.
Ruth's local anime-carrying video store, besides having an impressive collection of dreck and a collection of hentai that would, if I did not know better, convince me that the entire GNP of Japan goes into producing badly drawn porn (Devilman, anybody?) also has a few things worth renting, such as the DVD of Metropolis which we shall watch tomorrow, and the tape of Irresponsible Captain Tylor we watched tonight. It was the second tape mislabeled as the first, but that didn't matter much. I could tell because they had the episode numbers on the title screens of each episode, but I still checked online afterwards, since, given this series, I would not have been surprised if Episode 1 had been intentionally labeled Episode 5, or, indeed, if they had started at Episode 26 and counted down to 1.
Yes, this is a comedy.
I had heard stories about Irresponsible Captain Tylor. I had heard, from various sources who had either seen or not seen it, more often not, that it sucked, it did not suck, it started out sucking but got very good, it was very good throughout, it was hilarious, it wasn't funny in the slightest, and that it started good and died at the ending. Can't tell you about the last one, but it doesn't suck and it was funny, two things which I had expected given that that was what I'd heard from people who had actually seen it. I had expected general zaniness, the Required Swimsuit Episode, and the stock set of characters you find on these shows. All those are there. I had not expected: the series to be traumatic as hell at only Episode 8, a beautifully voiced Seki Toshihiko (Duo Maxwell-- Gundam Wing, Legato Bluesummers-- Trigun) villain who hates the hero's guts for the best reason I've seen anyone hate anyone in anime, and Hayami Sho, of all people (Nicholas D. Wolfwood-- Trigun, Muraki Kazutaka-- Yami no Matsuei), standing around as the rules-crazy stickler annoying-as-all-hell lieutenant, and I wouldn't have recognized him in a million years. He whines.
I had also not expected this series to be an even cross, in thirds, between Nadesico, Cowboy Bebop and Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books.(Caveat: I have not yet seen all of Bebop.)
I am not saying this series is as good as all that, because that's not a good mix, Nadesico had some lousy writing and I dislike what I have seen of Bebop. Still, it's damn good and really scary.
(A further comment on Cowboy Bebop: by analogy of characters, examination of shot-by-shot parallels, and general tone similarities I have concluded that Bebop was made as one long crowded in-joke about Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Repeat caveat, but hell, THE MUSIC FROM BEBOP IS BASED ON THE BACKGROUND SCORE. Which frightens me and explains a hellofa lot about Bebop. Yes, Tylor is Spike, only nicer and without the competence. Tylor is also Miles Vorkosigan, without the competence. I think. Tylor may be that competent and just hiding it.)
So I recommend this. It's funny, until it hurts.
Angst-O-Meter: wait until I pick up my head.
Must...find...more...anime...
Ruth's local anime-carrying video store, besides having an impressive collection of dreck and a collection of hentai that would, if I did not know better, convince me that the entire GNP of Japan goes into producing badly drawn porn (Devilman, anybody?) also has a few things worth renting, such as the DVD of Metropolis which we shall watch tomorrow, and the tape of Irresponsible Captain Tylor we watched tonight. It was the second tape mislabeled as the first, but that didn't matter much. I could tell because they had the episode numbers on the title screens of each episode, but I still checked online afterwards, since, given this series, I would not have been surprised if Episode 1 had been intentionally labeled Episode 5, or, indeed, if they had started at Episode 26 and counted down to 1.
Yes, this is a comedy.
I had heard stories about Irresponsible Captain Tylor. I had heard, from various sources who had either seen or not seen it, more often not, that it sucked, it did not suck, it started out sucking but got very good, it was very good throughout, it was hilarious, it wasn't funny in the slightest, and that it started good and died at the ending. Can't tell you about the last one, but it doesn't suck and it was funny, two things which I had expected given that that was what I'd heard from people who had actually seen it. I had expected general zaniness, the Required Swimsuit Episode, and the stock set of characters you find on these shows. All those are there. I had not expected: the series to be traumatic as hell at only Episode 8, a beautifully voiced Seki Toshihiko (Duo Maxwell-- Gundam Wing, Legato Bluesummers-- Trigun) villain who hates the hero's guts for the best reason I've seen anyone hate anyone in anime, and Hayami Sho, of all people (Nicholas D. Wolfwood-- Trigun, Muraki Kazutaka-- Yami no Matsuei), standing around as the rules-crazy stickler annoying-as-all-hell lieutenant, and I wouldn't have recognized him in a million years. He whines.
I had also not expected this series to be an even cross, in thirds, between Nadesico, Cowboy Bebop and Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books.(Caveat: I have not yet seen all of Bebop.)
I am not saying this series is as good as all that, because that's not a good mix, Nadesico had some lousy writing and I dislike what I have seen of Bebop. Still, it's damn good and really scary.
(A further comment on Cowboy Bebop: by analogy of characters, examination of shot-by-shot parallels, and general tone similarities I have concluded that Bebop was made as one long crowded in-joke about Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Repeat caveat, but hell, THE MUSIC FROM BEBOP IS BASED ON THE BACKGROUND SCORE. Which frightens me and explains a hellofa lot about Bebop. Yes, Tylor is Spike, only nicer and without the competence. Tylor is also Miles Vorkosigan, without the competence. I think. Tylor may be that competent and just hiding it.)
So I recommend this. It's funny, until it hurts.
Angst-O-Meter: wait until I pick up my head.
Must...find...more...anime...
