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With a franchise as big and as long lasting (50 years!) as Go Nagai's Devilman, the usual questions of why and how the series got so popular are omnipresent, especially to a western audience who doesn't see it's impact in the same way that they do franchises like Dragon Ball or Evangelion. Devilman is, in fact, a series that doesn't need it's future legacy as a crutch.

What still stands out after 50 years of Devilman is how angry it is. Not it's edginess or it's violence (though there's plenty of both), but how it's brisk pace and selective narrative at points feel like more ... like a screed - unfocused rage at first, and later on a damnnation of mankind as a whole. It's a deeply unhappy story where, as the stakes rise, so does abject suffering and inhumanity. Both main characters Akira and Ryo's involvement in fighting demons very quickly morphs their well-mannered selves into irritable husks who are constantly trying to quash the next demon-fueled existential threat. Humanity is shown as paranoid, easily influenced, quick to anger, and generally bigoted. 50 years later, it's as palpable as ever.

Something that may throw people off is very minimal context to the world around Devilman - the world shifts multiple times with a single line of exposition, concepts and characters are introduced and concluded with very little context surrounding them and characters will make seemingly huge plans that are often executed in between chapters. One major character development is so quickly brushed over that it almost makes me question it's inclusion at all, especially how little it is utilized afterwards. In the grand scheme I'd argue it mostly works to Devilman's benefit as a bitter, unrelenting story - but undoubtedly this is the result of a story that was clearly serialized with broader ideas in mind at the start.

You can't mention Devilman without mentioning the extreme amounts of gore. The demons that Akira fights are grotesque, screaming abominations with the ability to combine into one another to unsettling results. The female form is often used in particular to create some fairly disturbing walking body horror (read: boobies with gaping maws). Perhaps more defining to Devilman is the gore - any devil actually killed is given an often fiery, always gruesome death - be it torn in half, limbs ripped off, or squashed, every demon Akira kills feels like an immensely visceral victory. This of course, pales in comparison to the human butchering throughout the series, which, without going into too much detail, is more graphic and at points genuine body horror. It isn't all about the grotesque of course - the grander, biblical-scale creation and destruction present throughout the series (especially the opening chapters) are in equal measure devastating and beautiful.

This review being as short as it is is a testament to the burst of rage that Devilman is as a whole - at a lean five volumes composed of about five chapters each, there's very little breathing room. While it may have benefited from a longer story with more worldbuilding and character development, as it stands it feels oddly personal, as if Go Nagai was reflecting on what he perceived as the inherent folly of human nature. It's a hard story not to recommend given how succinct it all is - if you're okay with going to some very dark places.

Having seen the Ghost in The Shell movie adaptation countless times (that really obscure one no one ever talks about of course), I didn't feel quite up to reading the original adaptation quite yet. I figured, hey, why not check out Appleseed, Masamune Shirow's fairly direct predecessor to Ghost in the Shell?

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a burning-car-battery of a mess.

While the world is interesting and the central conflict engaging, with the enjoyable staples of 80's cyberpunk and Shirow's insistance on shopping-cart-wheeled-mechs, the worldbuilding itself is a disaster. So many concepts are introduced through extremely clumsy, peacemeal exposition by nameless or very minor ... characters, often portraying situations and characters in certain situations or factions with the reader having to assume "oh, I guess they're doing this now".

Character motivations and backstories are similarly obfuscated, making essential character traits - like Deunan's age and role during World War III - really hard to determine. It's hard to root for anyone if they're all vague archetypes who's backstory *might* be elaborated on in the future.

By the time I got to the "Appleseed" chapter - you know, the one that presumably would explain the concepts behind the manga's name and themes - it was so obfuscated by technobabble and hard-to-decipher character motivation that I didn't have the energy to go on.

Although Shirow's involvement in Stand Alone Complex was probably minimal, I definitely get those vibes when it comes to Appleseed's exposition dumps that clumsily explain the entirety of what's going on and if you don't understand you're just a big dummy. SAC had the excuse of interjecting philosophy for all of those people who insisted anime wasn't art until it had random quotations of Catcher in The Rye as antagonist mottos and near-pornographic interjections of random philosophy from hardened police officers. What's Appleseed's excuse?

It's a shame the designs for the cyborgs, mechs, and other technological miscellany look so cool, because the art itself is a mess and woefully inconsistent, especially during action scenes. I wasn't aware overshading was a thing, but Shirow's "attention to detail" can get you lost in the details and make it hard to make out the entire panel at points. This is especially a problem with action scenes are an absolute chore to read (not surprisingly, they're the longest chapters!). No matter how cool everything looks, the aformentioned shading problem + inconsistent action between panels makes reading action scenes feel like reading some ancient, obscure verse of English - the shapes generally make sense, but trying to figure out how they go together takes quite a bit of interpretation.

Character designs often get lost in the action, with minor features such as antenna or eye count adding to the muddled mess that is the action scenes. I was even mistaking key characters for others at some points!

If the very original Appleseed is like this, it's no wonder was sidelined in favor of Ghost in the Shell for media dominance. I wish the world Appleseed created got a better manga to go with it.

Well, this is it - the movie I was so spoiler averse to I only found out it came out a week after it released on Amazon Prime! And what did I find so incredibly sacred that I couldn't dare be spoiled? (No specific spoilers here, a general sense of the structure and ending however.)

Evangelion is probably the most important piece of media I've ever consumed. It changed the way I viewed myself and others. It introduced me to the rich world of anime. It cemented my friendship with some of my most cherished friends. Naturally, I watched the Rebuilds up to 3.00 a few ... months later and was concerned with the direction of the series - the incredible characters, the daring pacing, the artistry of it all - none of that was there past the glorified remake that is 1.00. How would the final bring this all together?

For 13 years, the Rebuild movies have struggled to justify their existence - on an artistic level, anyway. It was evidently clear that by 2.22, these were glorified toy commercials used to sell a combination of increasingly over-designed robots and underaged girls in spandex - and 3.00 + 1.00 (Thrice) carries this tradition proudly.

Story:

I'll give credit where credit is due - the first half of Thrice has something the other Rebuild sequels out right don't - restraint. Picking up exactly where 3.00 left off, we're given some genuine downtime with the characters in an idyllic setting. Don't get me wrong, the downtime is barely used for anything important besides character development that's barely touched upon, but the visuals are nice, the music is serene, and I can't help appreciate some of the thematic implications of the setting...

And then part 2 rolls around.

"Do you have any idea what the fuck is going on?" I asked my friend 3/4ths the way through the movie. No, he didn't - no one did. I can't help but feel like throughout the Rebuilds, Khara cynically banked on the fact that some fans insisted that Evangelion was an indecipherable philosophical mess. Why bother explaining anything when people can just yell countless vaguely biblical phrases to describe the visual mess on screen? That's what Evangelion has always been after all - a series of cryptic metaphors for the bible, or whatever. I can honestly not explain a single goddamn thing that happened in the last half of the movie besides some retroactive explanations of events, memberberries, sendoffs for characters who have been sent-off 25 years ago and a rage-inducing ending that I'm not sure whether to applaud or hate to my core (just kidding, it's the latter).

Crap. Trite. An insult to Evangelion as a whole.

I really hate how people are acting like this is some long earned conclusion to Evangelion. The show literally had the most definitive ending possible 25 years ago.


Art:

"Every frame is so dense, there's so much going on." - Rick McCallum

You'd think Khara would have this in the bag, right? A studio with such a rich pedigree of smattering colorful images of overdesigned robots fighting in increasingly esoteric locations? Although the aforementioned first half looks very nice, the second half is arguably some of the worst stuff in the series. Not only is it CG rainbow vomit of the highest order that's about as hard to decipher as the dialogue, the CG turns from bad to worse as horribly designed abominations cover the screen in copy-pasted models that only lose detail as they are introduced in rapid fashion. I'd say it has to be seen to believed, but I do value your eyesight, dear viewer.

Sound:

Unironically the best thing going for Thrice is the soundtrack. Shirou Sagisu kills it, as usual, with his soul-stirring use of strings and his good-vibe jazz influences. Expect a lot of Decisive Battle.


Character:
The biggest betrayal to the original series that the Rebuilds and now Thrice accomplish is their complete disdain for meaningful character development. While by the time the original Evangelion series ends the characters are permanently etched in your soul, the Rebuilds exchange that for below-surface level versions of the characters you love. Shinji is either his typical depressed self or a shonen protagonist as the plot deems. Asuka is a gloomy bitch who isn't even tsundere anymore. Rei is a stoic vessel with the mind of a child.

And who the FUCK is Mari? If you were hoping for a satisfying explanation (read: justification to have a big booby glasses girl figurine for all the coomers to hot glue), you're shit out of luck. No matter how many alternate names are revealed or alliances questioned (and there's quite a few), all of it means bugger all to the plot, and even less so to the viewer.

One long-established character in particular is given a long, drawn out diatribe on their personality and motives and it's not the deep, insightful revelation that the movie thinks it is - it instead comes off as redundant, considering we've seen this character concluded, say it with me now, 25 years ago. Other characters get their own sendoffs, with similar results.

In short: Stop trying to be an Evangelion ending - you're not an Evangelion ending.


Conclusion:

The Rebuild series is proof that it doesn't take talent, or an original idea, or even a good idea to make a lot of money and waste people's time. And Thrice cements that an idea that starts as a confused, cynical mess of an idea will end as a confused, cynical mess.

What especially kills me is because it's Evangelion, it'll get a pass. Fans will analyze every frame of horrid CGI and every meaningless line of hyperexpository dialogue, all making due with what is, in reality, a nothing sandwich. Because Hideki Anno made a few good shows, his direction won't be questioned, but praised. Auteur theory can kiss my ass.

To quote Rich Evans: "How does it feel to have lived long enough to see all your favorite franchises go down in flames?"

A run of the mill 80's OVA with absolutely no surprises, the best adjective I can use to describe MADOX-01 is "inoffensive". Well, that's not entirely true, considering the only female character with any semblance of agency is praised for piloting the MADOX "despite being a woman".

It's clear they had a really cool mecha design and had to produce an OVA around it - the intro is some pretty great mech porn, and the MADOX itself is a really cool, smaller-sized design that's more in line with something like an exosuit than a full-sized super robot. They put a decent amount of thought into ... it's operation, right down to the unique way the MADOX is entered through the back. The military porn is top notch too. It's pretty clear where their priorities went...

...because everything else is excessively underwhelming. Character designs are basic with excessively simple jawlines - no matter how many romantic soft-filters put on them, they still come out looking ugly.

The protagonist in particular is the convenient kind of dumb that a lot of lesser mecha shows thrive on. He finds the MADOX after a terrorist attack leaves it's transport immobile, and being your average anime prodigy with a head of bricks he brings it to life, only to get stuck inside of it. He remembers that his girlfriend is leaving for London in a few days, so of course he prioritizes her over getting out of this expensive piece of military hardware, property damage, and murder - but it's okay because the MADOX's systems are automated! He of course gets a grip and becomes a near prodigy over the span of a few hours, of course.

Being completely realistic, most OVAs of this time were of this caliber of writing, but it didn't matter because the production values beat the shit out of anything on TV at the time. So enjoy the cool designs and explosions! I did to a decent degree - that's why I'm nice enough to give it a 4. Try not to let the shoddy everything else get in the way, though.

"Wow, cool robot!"

"No, war is bad."

Intro:
Throughout my on-off group watching of the UC Gundams over the past two years mostly comprised of 0079 and Zeta, I've grown to appreciate the series' core themes: war's toll on civilians and combatants, life's fragility, the callousness of institutions, and the reductive nature of conflict itself.

Through 0079, I appreciated the innovative storytelling methods for the mecha genre, including very real stakes - ammunition, fatigue, and trauma were an inescapable part of warfare. Through Zeta, as the animation and designs got better, so did the intimacies of conflict - themes of love, politics, and rebellion only added to the ... depth of the Gundam universe.

And yet to me these series both felt held back, both by what I presume are the realities of making TV anime at the time and my own personal snobbish standards. Character development was good, especially in Zeta, but felt hampered by the need to have a Gundam blow something up in every episode, and a big cast meant some would fall by the wayside for a good few episodes; this meant that for as interesting as the character conflicts were, they had very little emotional involvement. The constant anti-war themes were omnipresent and efficiently portayed, but at the end of the day you showed up to see giant robots fighting one another. All in all, an enjoyable series that to me hadn't gone deep enough into it's most appealing aspects.

I can say that after 10 years of Gundam defining the mecha genre, War in the Pocket finally hit Gundam's thematic, character-driven peak.


Story:
The most striking thing about War in the Pocket is how intimate it is compared to anything else in the classic UC - One colony; one kid; one pilot; and only a handful of mechs that make up less than 1/4th screentime. So with such comparably smaller stakes than the mech mass murdering, colony dropping, four-dimensional chess of it's older, more profitable brothers, what fills in the gap? The blooming friendship of Al, a young boy with a fascination with mobile suits and Bernie, a rookie Zeon pilot with an undercover mission.

What really makes the story work is the setting. Side 6 is a "neutral colony", one that has no stake in the One Year War. Although it is peaceful, neutrality has lead to ignorance among it's populace. Of course, much like "neutral" countries in the real world, there's always some political sway - the Federation has set up a few embassies, some for more "proactive" reasons than others...

War in The Pocket takes place during the One Year War, the war that set the franchise off, so expect references and some close ties with 0079, as well as conflict obviously driven by the series' events, although nothing that'll drastically add to the main series.


Themes:
Pop culture at large lately has had a hard-on for the Deconstruction, the idea that the smartest stories are the ones that makes viewers cast a critical eye on the genre or medium they enjoy. When it comes to anime (I shouldn't even have to finish this sentence because we all know where this is going), the most popular example of deconstruction is Evangelion, in particular it's allegedly critical eye on the mecha genre. While I personally take great issue with such a simplification of Evangelion's themes, the label stuck. While people like to pluck whatever anti-mecha, anti-anime, anti-otaku meaning they can from the wondrous, incredible, endearing mess that is Evangelion, War in The Pocket is a comparatively straight-laced deconstruction. It has older folks rant about how terrible mobile suits and the One Year War are, and young ignorant kids repeat Gundam fan talking points, including how much cooler the "bad guys'" mobile suits are than the "good guys". If you've ever purchased a gunpla or shitpost on /m/ about how "Zeon are the good guys", you're going to be called out with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

And yet at the same time, it really is only ever reinforcing those franchise wide themes - but this time, it's made much more personal. This isn't just a colony - it's someone's home. Innocent people die or are maimed. Buildings are destroyed and people's daily lives are altered because of it. Soldiers are maimed gruesomely and thanklessly. Turns out when you're not a plucky young pilot piloting a giant robot, war can be really traumatizing.


Characters:
Seeing as War in The Pocket focuses mostly on Al and Bernie, this section really is about them.

Al -
So who's the main vessel for all of this incredibly sobering stuff? An 11-year-old, naturally! Who better to represent the Gundam fandom than an ignorant little kid who is fascinated by war and mobile suits, and who thinks of the Federation and Zeon as mere sides to a cool war with explosions?


A writers' scorn for the audience isn't the only thing going for Al as a character, thankfully. He also happens to probably be one of the best depictions of a young boy in any anime I've seen. He's innocent and a little bratty like any kid, but he's not dumb - he's incredibly intuitive and knowledgeable about his interests, even if it tends to get him on the wrong end of the stick sometimes...

And, with him, we start off doe-eyed in this anime - a Zaku fighting a Federation mobile suit in HIS colony? Wow, cool robots! Cool explosions! And as the reality of war sets in, while he sees the true cost of war - with destruction and death in it's wake - we feel it too.


Probably the best part of his character is that at no point does his ignorance start an episode-long plot point out of convenience. He's treated with the same agency as any other, older protagonist in the series.


Bernie -

A young, kind-hearted pilot who unfortunately associates with the Bad Guys, Bernie serves as the most humanizing portrayal of a Zeon soldier Gundam has ever seen.

Sure, he's focused on his mission - but along the way, he bonds with Al like a brother. He too is somewhat innocent - being a recent recruit, he thinks twice about any harm he causes innocents.


More engaging than any action sequence in the show is watching the slow but subtle bond between Al and Bernie grow. From annoyance to freindship, there's a level of depth and wholesomeness that the rest of the Gundam series lacks.


Art/Animation:
Preemo OVA quality from the Bubble Economy, baby! The Gundam fights are suitably weighty and technically detailed, of course. However, given how hard the series wants to drive the horrors of war home, destruction, and more importantly, it's aftermath, is shown in graphic detail, often times wtih mangled corpses being pulled out of wreckage.

Infantry related combat in Gundam is almost never touched upon in the main series. War in the Pocket has a fair bit of gun porn, including weapon modifications that make the previously campy weapon designs feel more grounded and usable. Interestingly, one scene shows what is perhaps the first infantry-only battle in Gundam's history, and it's portrayed as messy and unrefined as most of the mecha battles. The only difference, of course, is that instead of robots blowing up you get confused tactics and profusely bleeding corpses!

Character animation has a noticeable weight and momentum to it, especially Al's 11-year-old reflexes. Turns out Mikimoto Haruhiko basically designed all my favorite anime characters. Who knew.


Conclusion:
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is Tomino's Gundam distilled into it's most harrowing form. It also might very well be the technically best (short) OVA ever made - none of the pacing or character issues that even masterpieces like Gunbuster succumb to, probably due to the fact that it's based on a long-running series. Although this was the first Gundam not directed by Tomino, I absolutely refuse to believe that he didn't have an influence on it's condemnation of Gundam fans and reinforcement of why Gundam was made in the first place.

[Spoilers... sort of]
As someone who considers Gunbuster one of his favorite interdimentional timey-wimey emotional space operas, I was going into Voices of a Distant Star with a handful of recommendations and comparisons to the classic Gainax OVA. What I got was... ehhh. Thankfully, other than the basic concept of time distortion, the mecha setup, and the pacing issues (more on that later), Voices of a Distant Star is it's own thing, so I'm going to do my due diligence and not compare it to the Other Time Dilation Mecha Anime.

I should start off by saying that yes, it's awfully impressive that this was made on ... some dude's laptop in it's entirety - in 2002! How often do you get genuine passion projects in anime? Not very often. Mad kudos. With that being said, bad animation is bad animation and poor storytelling is poor storytelling, no matter how big or small the production is. This is the first and last time I apologize for any insensitivites about the subject.

It's a shame, because the concept of the show and how it's explained does pull at my heartstrings. It's a question that humanity doesn't currently have the technology to answer - "as time distorts, how does relationships?" - that gives off a unique combination of dread and longing.

Funny how time distortion is probably this anime's biggest problem, given it's short length. Wait I know, it was probably born out of necessity and passion, ect! And I can certainly appreciate time-limited production's incredibly tough decisions to Show, Tell, or Infer... but there's a little too much assumptions on the viewer's part to really get invested in any of the story. My entire issue with the show's story is how much it skirts by with so little - and that's basically what the Characters and Story section get into.


Characters:

The protagonists' relationship is what I would call "defaulted" - they're a guy and a girl and they're in the same class so of course they hit it off - it's an anime, don't ask why! Outside of a few scant mentions of them hanging out at convenience stores, there's not much development of their relationship. "Defaulting" assumes the viewer will be perfectly ok with this - "love is love", after all. Unfortunately, without being given a real reason to care about the relationship, all the drama involving time and distance and love come across as nothing more than waxing poetic. "I miss him" "I love him" "I want to go to the convenience store with him" is basically all you're really going to get in terms of character motivation.


Story:

The lover's method of communication - their cell phones - is a cool analogue function that is immediately understandable to the viewer. Easily the best case of inferred storytelling in the entire OVA. "Of course digital data takes a long time to get from point to point in space!"

Unfortunately, all this in service to a story that doesn't particularly go anywhere special. They eventually long for each other so much that they are able communicate across space-time because love finds a way, or something. They basically miss hanging out with each other, mostly in ways we have to infer.

And I'm sorry if I wax on, but the mecha aspects leave something to be desired. Fine, a 14-year-old is chosen to fight in some space war - that's a genre birthmark. The real make-or-break for a show like this is why? Lack of manpower? Wanting the youngest people available for a campaign that would take decades of real time service? A simple sentence - or even showing other pilots - would seriously help with worldbuilding.


Art:

Alright, bear with me guys. I think we can at least agree the art is sorta bad, although easily the easiest thing to overlook in this production.


Let's start with a semi-nitpicky complaint - why is Nagamine wearing a school uniform in her mecha suit?


The character designs suffer from frame inconsistency to the point that it's distracting. You know how it goes - facial features go up, down and sideways depending on the perspective.


The mecha and enemy designs are basic 3D models with some sheen added. Strangely nostalgic, as a 2000's kid used to this era of CGI.


Conclusion:

Voices of a Distant Star has a cool concept and an impressive production background. Even with it's limitations in mind, it simply fails to tell a comparatively compelling story to more fleshed out shows, OVAs, and movies, and that's probably the one thing that's universally important for any story-based medium. I don't hesitate to recommend this to people if they want to see what a truly "indie" anime looks like, but outside that, it's all empty space.