Magi Magi Magiiro!

Last week, I finished watching Mahou Sentai Magiranger (Magical Taskforce Magiranger), which was a freaking BLAST and I loved it to death. This is the first time in a while that I’ve actually felt a sense of loss at the end of a series. Usually I’m at least a little bit relieved when I finish watching something, because then I can go on to other things. But I wanted Magiranger to keep on going. 😦

In case you don’t know, Magiranger is a Super Sentai series, and if you don’t know what Super Sentai is, look it up. It’s the first one I’ve ever watched– no, I never even saw Power Rangers as a kid because I thought it looked stupid. I’m almost afraid to watch more Super Sentai because I don’t know how any of the others could possibly be as awesome as Magi was.

Even though it’s not anime, it had everything that I originally loved about anime: cool magical attacks, colorful costumes, kickass action, lovable characters, shocking plot twists, catchy songs, and last but not least, giant robots. I expected that the live-action would make it intolerably cheesy. Wrong!

Okay, the acting was stiff for like, the first ten episodes. But after that, they all got better. In fact, everything about the series kept getting better. And then Hikaru/MagiShine showed up and was all, “Hello, I’m awesome.” And after that things REALLY took off. Hikaru is my favorite, by the way. I think I have a crush on him.

Have a look at the second opening, which has Hikaru in it (he’s the gold one).

The closing is ridiculously cute and catchy and I love it and wish I could do their little dance. (Don’t ask about the talking plant.)

And because the whole world should know how awesome MagiShine is, here’s his first transformation and fight. Check out this GQMF:

Okay, okay, I’m done now, I promise.

Thoughts on the Late Night Fallout

I’ve been a fan of Conan O’Brien since one late summer night in 1998, so technically this falls under nostalgia…? Yeah, I know, bit of a stretch. Anyway, like many others, I was outraged and saddened at what happened to him this past January. (And I never liked Leno even before all this mess.)

This post actually comes straight outta my Livejournal, but since few of you here have access to that, I’m re-posting it here. I just want to make my opinion on the matter a little more widely known, I suppose. (Plus, hey, it’s content! Can’t complain about that, right?)

I am getting tired of people saying they have no sympathy for Conan O’Brien because NBC gave him millions in severance pay. Money, money, money– who cares? Ever stop to think that things aren’t always just about the money? NBC did wrong by him. Period. Also don’t forget the part where he was paying his employees out of his own pocket.

I think people don’t realize how hard a job it would be to be on television five nights a week. Think about it. You don’t just sit in a chair and talk to people. There’s a lot of stress and time and work involved, so I think television workers and actors deserve to get paid a lot of money, because you can’t just hire average Joe off the street to do jobs like that. It takes experience, knowledge, and talent. I do think that some performers are overpaid *coughlenocough* but in general, they don’t have an easy job so they deserve some monetary compensation.

THAT BEING SAID, it’s clear Conan was not just in it for the money. Obviously it didn’t matter to him that much because he was content to give quite a bit of it away to his staff. Forget the 45 million dollars and just think of it this way: The man worked hard for years and was given his dream job, and then was betrayed and had it taken away from him. Just think about how you’d feel if that happened to you. Would the 45 mil really be all that much of a comfort?

I guess I’m just tired of people being a bunch of cynical, jealous assholes. People think performers and other rich people should be happy and joyful and are not allowed to have any problems whatsoever just because they have boocoos of money. Look at all the celebrities that end up destroying themselves– money does not solve all problems and it does not buy happiness. You’d think people would’ve figured that shit out by now.

At least Conan’s touring the country, and making a triumphant return to TV this fall on TBS, and he’ll be on 60 Minutes tomorrow night– can’t wait to see that interview. So things are definitely looking up for him in spite of all this crap, and I’m glad.

Anison of the Week #1!

As I said before, I’ve been trying to work on my story lately. Unfortunately, I have developed writer’s block, and I do not feel like smashing my head into it until the wall breaks, so I’m giving it a rest for at least a couple of days.

However, I did have an idea for a new feature for this here blog!

I watch a lot of anime and I like Japanese things in general. I also have a deep, undying love of music and few things get to me like a good song does. Therefore, it should go without saying that I LOVE anime songs, also known as and hereafter referred to as “anison”.

More specifically, I like mecha/giant robot anime and I have a pretty damn huge collection of mecha anison. Many of them are old, too– I have songs that date back to the 70s. So I’ve decided that in order to liven things up a bit around here, I’m gonna open my giant playlist, pick a random song, and then write a little bit about it and the anime it comes from, and probably the artist if it’s one of my particular favorites. I’m thinking of doing this roughly once a week. I know it’s kind of an obscure thing to write about, but I hope you guys enjoy it anyway.

Iku ze! Let’s go! Okay Winamp, let’s shuffle!

This week’s anison is:

*drumroll*

Fukkatsu no Ideon, by Taira Isao!

Ah, good one– one of my favorite anison (warning: you will hear me say that a lot). It’s the opening song to a mecha anime called Space Runaway Ideon, from the creator of Mobile Suit Gundam, Tomino Yoshiyuki. It aired in the 1980-1981 season, so it’s pretty old by now, and rather obscure even among some anime fans. However, I’ve seen all 39 episodes and the feature-length conclusion thanks to the magic of the internet!

Despite it being a giant robot show, Ideon is not for the kiddies. In fact, it is one of the shows that led people to christen the director “Kill ‘Em All” Tomino. Given that, and if you’re an anime fan and have seen End of Evangelion, you can guess how Ideon ends. (In fact, Anno Hideaki more or less admitted that End of Eva was pretty much a total ripoff of the Ideon movie. But now I’m getting off-topic.)

It’s violent. It’s a mindfuck. The characters are frustrating with the way they constantly misunderstand each other. It was possibly the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, possibly because my husband and I watched the whole thing with a group of friends.

Anyway, I enjoy the opening song quite a bit. I’m not sure if I can adequately explain why. I don’t even know what genre of music this would fall into. It has such a different sound compared to most other anison, starting off quietly with some nice acoustic guitar and then kicking into a surprisingly upbeat song underscored by brass and strings and finishing off with a nice drum flourish.

The lyrics fit the series well too, with lines such as “the power of the legendary giant tears the galaxy apart”, which is very prophetic!

And on top of all that, it’s sung by one of my absolute favorite anison singers, Taira Isao. He’s not as prolific as some other singers of the time, but he did a great job with the songs he did perform, and this is certainly no exception. His voice is so unique and perfect for this song.

Now check it out!

Merry BetamaXmas!

BetamaXmas is a fantastic website. It’s possible that it is one of the greatest websites of all time. It appeals to me in every way, not just in concept but in execution.

In case you’re a lazy bastard and didn’t click the link, I will elaborate. Basically, it simulates sitting in a 70s/80s basement and watching Christmas specials on television. The details are fantastic– you can even “adjust” the “rabbit ears”. I’ve been in many a house with fake wood paneling and have sat on plenty of tacky plaid couches and have cuddled up with lots of crocheted afghans. And of course, I have had the experience of having to get the rabbit ears just right. Also, the “channel” seems to change of its own volition, which simulates the experience of watching the tube with dear old Dad, who is, to this very day, obsessed with changing the damn channel at least five times during every show, usually right when a show starts to get interesting.

Oh, here’s a quick tangent: I’d heard of the show Silver Spoons, but had never seen it until I discovered BetamaXmas. So I watched five or six episodes on Hulu. It’s a cute concept and I’m actually pretty impressed with the kid’s acting, but it pushes my schmaltz tolerance a bit so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it through the whole first season, haha. But it’s nowhere near as bad as Full House– so far.

Anyway, this site brings plenty of 80s Christmas Spirit to the holiday table. In fact, I was so filled with it after watching it that I got my husband’s presents out of hiding and wrapped them and stuck them under the tree.

I really don’t know what it is about 80s Christmas commercials that get me in the spirit. Maybe it’s because they’re fuzzy wuzzy and sentimental, and they bring back rosy memories of a time when the most complicated issue I faced was being afraid of the dark.

Nostalgiathon 2009 #5: Old Sitcoms

When I was a kid, I watched a lot of Nick at Nite. I don’t know why. I can’t explain why I liked it so much. I guess because some of the shows made me laugh. Taxi, The Bob Newhart Show, I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show– stuff like that. I watched them all.

One show I remember really liking was The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Recently I watched the first four seasons after not having seen it since the mid 90s. It was like watching a completely different show– I like it more now than I did back then. How was I even able to laugh at it all those years ago? Maybe kids understand humor better than we give them credit for.

As for The Bob Newhart Show, I think that’ll be the next show I watch on Hulu. Don’t forget Welcome Back, Kotter. I went crazy for that show when they started running it. And I used to watch The Partridge Family a lot, but I have no desire to revisit that one.

Yes, this post is a total copout. Do I care? No, not at the moment.