The latest Animé series we’re watching with Eric is GunXSword, about a western-style character named Van, seeking revenge against a man named Claw, for the death of his betrothed. There are giant robots involved that look like the Transformers. It’s not as silly as it sounds!
In this 10-minute clip there are no robots. Carmen99, overly endowed and scantily dressed, is visiting her hometown. She finds the townsfolk suspiciously happy.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/APR07/GunXSword.flv 425 240]© AIC
It’s interesting to note that throughout the “Dark Tower” series, there is a mixture of medieval and sci-fi elements. I guess it’s supposed to take place in a post-Armageddon landscape, but even that’s not right. One fun character that appears later is “Andy the Robot” who is a turncoat. He is annoying and adorable, even while betraying his friends. The other thing that King did that was monumental was tie in elements of several of his other novels, even bringing in characters who had mysteriously disappeared. The ending of “The Dark Tower,” however, was extremely stupid and totally foreseeable. I guessed it half-way through the last book and have been soured on King ever since. Now his son Joe has published a book under the pseudonym “Joe Hill,” but since he looks and writes just like his Dad everybody has already figured out who he his.
Japanese eye exaggeration goes all the way back to Astro Boy, and undoubtedly pre-dates that. Teen boys being the primary audience for certain Anime titles is probably the reason for the exaggeration of some of the women characters.
Yes, I see what you mean about King’s gunslinger influence. I started to read the Dark Tower series way back when it was first published in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. But I don’t think I went past the first two novella-length installments. Work kept me too busy to do any fun reading, even comic books.
Do you think that the Japanese have a hangup about, er, chest size, like they do, EYE size? Notice how carmen the over-endowed and scantily dressed is clad in BLACK and Hayetah is dressed like Pollyanna. I’d bet any money that the tall black “gun slinger” is based on “The Dark Tower” character by Stephen King. He’s even DRAWN to look like King! Interesting.