Category: Animé

Over the past 10 years I have taken advantage of familial opportunities, shall we say, to watch many hours of the Gundam anime TV series, but I haven’t seen any of the movie compilations. Here’s my chance “for a limited time.” Exactly how long that is, I don’t know.

https://youtu.be/yYunkmTxzH4

I am pleased that Sunrise Entertainment chose to use the original Japanese soundtrack with English subtitles.

https://youtu.be/QLSKZoW0lfI

At the 2012 New York Comic Con, Sunrise showed a preview of an upcoming Gundam series and held a vote on whether they should play it with subtitles or the English dub, and I lost that vote.

https://youtu.be/0vuXE97zmFc

One of the finest examples of animation ever made for television, if not the finest, is Sherlock Hound, from 1984-85. I am in the middle of watching the series on DVD, and even if not all of the stories are particularly compelling, every one of them is charming and a visual treat of exceptional quality. Here is some more background from a video blogger, but note that some of his attempts at humor are confusing and undercut the point he is trying to convey.

I strongly prefer watching anime with its original Japanese soundtrack and English subtitles, but the only episodes of Sherlock Hound available in decent video quality on YouTube are dubbed in English.

https://youtu.be/SHsAi0jtN_w

Osamu Tezuka’s creation “Mighty Atom” became “Astro Boy” in America. Along with Bob Clampett’s “Beany & Cecil,” Astro was the TV cartoon that influenced me the most as a kid.

A Tezuka cartoon that didn’t appear in America was the astounding and disturbing “Dororo.” The story is as medieval as Astro is futuristic. The premise of Astro is dark, being the death of a little boy, and Dororo takes an even darker twist. It begins with the birth of a horribly deformed baby boy.

https://youtu.be/bbbHrOK6xfc

The complete original Dororo series on DVD currently costs $50 on Amazon, but Dororo was recently remade and it’s available on Amazon Prime.