Anime blathering

[avram]

The Cartoon Network seems to be running some kind of Cowboy Bebop marathon or something tonight — six episodes in a row, though not in order. They started with the first episode at 11 PM, then followed with the fifth, “Ballad for Fallen Angels”, which is one of my favorites. Now I’m watching “Jupiter Jazz, Part One”, and according to The Jazz Messengers (a Bebop fan site), it’ll be followed by the second part, and then by both parts of the final episode, “The Real Folk Blues”.

Oh! And Big Apple Anime Fest will be premiering the theatrical release of the English dub of the Cowboy Bebop Movie on August 30th! Consolation for not being able to afford Worldcon!

According to last week’s TV Guide, last Saturday night they ran three hours of something it calls “Yuyu Hakusho”, though the fans sites I turned up with a quick googling seem to prefer Yû Yû Hakusho.

And some more googling reveals to me that an English release of Kareshi Kanojyo no Jijyo (His and Her Circumstances) should be recently out on video and DVD. Cool! I saw an episode or two of this shojou romance anime at a Parsons Anime meeting a year or two back, and liked it a whole lot. And apparently TokyoPop has the translation rights to the manga, but I don’t know if the manga has all the cool presentational stuff I loved in the anime.

Damn, what was that other anime show I really liked? My problem is that after I saw this stuff, I raved about it in a letter to mamishka — an old-fashioned dead-tree letter, meaning I have no local copy I can use to prop up my ailing memory. Woe! It was about, um, a bunch of young people who use magical powers to fight evil creatures. (Yeah, that narrows it down.) It was set in Japan in the 1960s (or maybe 50s or 70s).

Comments

Set in the sixties?

[(Anonymous)]

Sounds like Gatekeepers.

If the people are always ranting about "AEGIS" and "Gate Open!", then it's gatekeepers, otherwise, some more info could determine what else it could be.

Yes!

[avram]

Yes, Gatekeepers! I googled for "gatekeepers anime" and found an episode guide, and the first episode sounds like what I saw, so that's it! Thank you, anonymous reader! (Who was that masked man?)

Re: Yes!

[(Anonymous)]

How many total anime-nuts read your blog, anyway, Avram?

-BSD

(and yes, that'd be me, demonstrating my knowledge of anime I DON'T EVEN LIKE)

Re: Yes!

[avram]

At least two (limiting it to folks who don't have LJ accounts), and people do sometimes unexpectedly stumble by.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Yu Yu Hakusho is very popular in some circles, but for me the lead character was insufficiently interesting to keep me going through all the fight fight sequences.

[avram]

It looked very fighty from what I saw on the fan pages.

[cliosfolly.livejournal.com]

I started out watching it with enjoyment--the idea of a "spirit detective" who'd be investigating supernatural occurances and such seemed interesting enough; but from my recent check-ins, it looks like it's settled into a steady pace of "episode where Yuuske fights a monster, and X supporting character begins a fight with another monster," "next episode where X fights a monster, and X+1 supporting character begins a fight with another monster," ad nauseam. I think that there's got to be some sort of overall story arc, but I admit to not having the patience to sit through the fight episodes when there's something in the wings like . . . Gatekeepers!