#retrosofa rambles

[retrosofa]

I downloaded the Tubi app on my TV and I’ve been watching/revisiting a lot of anime.

Lupin III: The original, green jacket series. Despite only being 23 episodes, I always ended up dropping this series. I don’t know why. I love it, but something always happens and I stop watching it. This has going on for over 10 years. Anyway, I finally finished it last week! While red jacket will always be *the* Lupin series for me, green jacket isn’t far behind. I think the stories are a bit more interesting, and I really love the more somber, adult mood of the first half. The Miyazaki episodes are really good too, but I missed the pulp aspect from the earlier episodes. I also really dig the roughness of the animation, and the music is top notch. The episode with the time traveler was my favorite. I think Lupin is at it’s best when the plots are surreal and trippy.

Ronin Warriors: OH BOY. I haven’t actively watched this show in AGES. I originally watched it as a kid when it was on Toonami. The dub is really impressive. Aside from some weird name changes, it’s virtually uncensored and has a pretty faithful adaptation. It’s funny to me how series like Dragon Ball Z, and Sailor Moon were so heavily censored and Ronin Warriors was like “fuck it, who cares?”. The series still takes place in Japan. Most Japanese names are kept. Original music is still there. Characters can mention death and even die. There’s even nudity left in! Killer. I will say, the first story arc is INSANELY dragged out. But the characters are a lot of fun, especially the villains. Also this series terrified me as a child (namely Talpa and his nether spirits) and still kinda does. Kento is bae.

Alien Nine: I watched this as a teenager back in the day, and I barely remembered it. I rewatched this last night. The premise is good, and the production values are nice (I can’t believe this is early digital animation, because it looks REALLY good, aside from the CGI). But, the series is definitely catered to grown men who enjoy watching young female characters suffer. Like I’m sure grown ass men who loved this, went on to adore shit like Madoka. It’s a shame because it’s a pretty good series, but the creepy loli aspect is hard to ignore. I don’t think I’ll pursue the manga.

Galaxy Express 999: Another series I’ve seen bits and pieces of, but never finished. I’m on episode 5. I love almost everything about the show, but... the writing kinda sucks? At least after episode 1. I thought the first episode was great, but the following episodes have had really bad pacing. The episode with Clare being a prime example. Apparently it gets better, so I’m gonna try to stick with it. The animation is also kinda... eh. I’m used to inconsistent animation styles, but it sticks out wayyy too much here, mostly because it’s a Leiji Matsumoto series. Maetel goes from looking like a Leiji-style heroine to a random anime girl on and off. It’s jarring.

Devilman Lady: I binged the first half of the series a couple of months ago, and I’m resuming it now. This is such an underrated series. It feels more like an adaptation of Devilman, rather than the Devilman Lady. The new transfer is beautiful. There are a lot of unintentionally funny scenes (Jun buying a bunk bed for her and Kazumi, LOL) but the show gets legitimately scary in places. The soundtrack is well done, AND utilized perfectly. Konaka needs to do another horror series.

Anyway, just my rambles on what anime I’m currently watching!