2005: DVD accolades “Tank!” edition
Paul •
Our favourite ‘sleeper’ UK releases of 2005
(Anime that we felt were underrated in 2005)
Andy Glass: While I’m sorely tempted to put Witch Hunter Robin in here, I’ve harped on about it before, so instead my special mention will be the old-skool classic Dominion Tank Police. It may be the nostalgia talking (Tank Police was the first ‘real’ anime I saw, back in the day), but there aren’t many that keep most of their charm and humour intact for so many years. The characters are colourful, the jokes are thick and fast, and the tank action is great. Another Shirow story given a faithful translation to film that is surprisingly accessible and enjoyable, even for anime newcomers.
Martin Butler: Tsukihime Lunar Legend is a supernatural/horror series that hasn’t really been given as much attention as it deserves. While most vampire-themed anime shows rely on shocks and gore, Tsukihime opts for a more atmospheric thriller-type of story that focuses on the characters and slowly working up the suspense. It’s a bit of a slow starter but is quite out of the ordinary as far as vampire series go and the soundtrack is impressive.
Michelle Howarth: My favourite sleeper series released in 2005 would have to be Rune Soldier. The final three discs of the series that debuted in the UK this past year bring what is a light and well written comedy series to an ending that suits it well. Often overlooked for more zany titles, Rune Soldier manages to be fun and entertaining with a truly likeable cast engaging in various fantasy exploits. Nothing here that will strain the brain cells of course but plenty to amuse and make you smile.
Jo Sarsam: The last couple of volumes of Angelic Layer were released this year, a series which, as a whole, seems to have passed under the radar of most fans. Offering a full range of emotions from the dramatic to the humorous, the series manages to breathe new life into the ‘battle tournament’ genre by dispensing with most of the usual clichés. It’s never going to be grouped with the classics, but you could do a lot worse than at least giving this one a rent.
James Seys-Llewellyn: Divergence Eve. From the outset, the series looked like a fanservice heavy romp, with the characters all being inhumanely well-endowed; it sounded like Stratos 4, maybe worse. But, when I began watching the series, all my preconceptions were shattered as one of the most openly hard sci-fi shows in recent times unfolded – in place of the expected panty shots came science, mystery and endearing characters. Perhaps more than any release this year, Divergence Eve is one not to judge by its cover.
Stuart Bullen: It may be the ocular equivalent of junk food, but Goro Taniguchi’s epic scrapper Scryed was one of the year’s biggest and most pleasant surprises for this jaded anime fan. With a story ripped straight from the pages of The Uncanny X-Men and its DBZ on mescaline fights it proved to be an immensely enjoyable distraction. Clever? No. Big, dumb and a hell of a lot of fun? Hell yes!
Paul: Any anime series involved with artistic prodigy Yoshitoshi ABe is worth a look and with Texhnolyze, ABe and his compatriots at Madhouse Studios have crafted a gloriously bleak and uncompromising story of human struggle. Set far off in the future in an underground city that has long since lost contact with the surface world, Texhnolyze remarkably shuns conventional (and some would say, safe) story telling techniques and introduces us to its hopeless world through a varied score of industrial beats and the kind of visuals reserved for only the most adventurous of cyber punk roller coasters.
Our biggest ‘stinker’ UK releases of 2005
Andy Glass: Perhaps it’s because I’m such a big Street Fighter fan that I was rather disappointed with this Street Fighter Alpha Generations. It was much too short, it bore too little relation to the movie (characters that introduced themselves in the movie somehow seemed to know each other here), and some characters had such fleeting appearances that they might as well not have bothered. I thought it tried to answer to many questions at once, and by the end of it the whole thing seemed horribly disjointed and rushed. Another minor gripe is that while it may have been translated properly, it wasn’t localised: Gouki is called Akuma over here, and there should have been no excuse for repeating what was done with the Alpha movie – just call him Akuma in the dub. It could have been so much better.
Martin Butler: While Ikki Tousen’s opening volume was pretty underwhelming and was my first thought for this dubious honour, even that has the potential to turn out half decent; shame the same could not be said for the travesty that was ADV’s Lady Death: the Motion Picture. This is a prime example of animation gone wrong: bad script, bad animation, and a bad adaptation of a little-known comic series. The only saving grace was that ADV’s voice actors made a good job of breathing life into the clichéd and shallow characters, but in all honesty I just hope those involved learn from their mistakes.
Michelle Howarth: While the series as a whole was certainly enjoyable at times, the concluding half of Kiddy Grade that hit UK stores in 2005 soon abandoned what positive aspects the series had and decided to “tack on” a truly dire ending. The series plummeted from what I thought was entertaining to total mediocrity by the seventh and eighth volumes by abandoning the existing storyline and almost making it like previous events had never occurred.
Jo Sarsam: Puni Puni Poemy has to be one of the low points of my anime watching this year; a frenzied hour of crude and tasteless jokes that took my least favourite aspects from Excel Saga and packaged them all together. It’s one of those things you watch so that you can say you’ve seen it rather than because you think you’ll derive much enjoyment from it.
James Seys-Llewellyn: Trigun. In the “bad ol’ days,” before time had began and when my knowledge of anime was low, I quite enjoyed the show, but when revisiting it revealed it to be far shallower, more boorish and dated than I could even imagine. It may have been quite good at the time, but this year has seen so many series much greater than it.
Stuart Bullen: I’m afraid I’ll have to award this dubious honour to Gundam SEED. Pinpointing exactly where the series went wrong is no easy task, but somewhere along the line this once proud beast turned from a chest beating, mecha frag fest into a space age soap opera cum toy advert that makes One Tree Hill look positively Shakespearian.
Paul: I’ve seen a lot bad anime this year but nothing comes close to the terrible stench that intoxicated my viewing of Transformers: Headmasters. I grew up with such luminaries as Optimus Prime, Megatron and Soundwave but the way they were nonchalantly thrown aside in Headmasters, combined with quite possibly the worst English dub of all time (there is more wood here than in the entire cast of Hollyoaks) made this utterly horrific viewing.
Our favourite DVD releases of 2005
Andy Glass: Cowboy Bebop is a series that has consistently impressed me, managing to get just about everything right. It’s been said before, and it’ll be said again, but the style, music, characters and direction of this series are so good I just keep coming back to it. It’s been so long since its short-lived stint on the airwaves, it’s nice to finally see it on the shelves.
Martin Butler: This is a very difficult question indeed – the likes of Last Exile, Stuart Bullen, Millennium Actress and the long-awaited Cowboy Bebop all deserve recognition but Haibane Renmei has been my personal favourite. Rather than using flashy CGI and frantic action scenes to grab the viewer’s attention, it quietly and subtly draws you into the story. The soundtrack and character designs are among the best I’ve seen this year, too.
Jo Sarsam: It’s a close run thing, but I’m going to have to go with Wolf’s Rain, a series that I just can’t praise enough. From beginning to end, the well-realised characters and a storyline filled with heart-wrenching moments never failed to impress; whilst the animation and soundtrack are of equally high quality.
James Seys-Llewellyn: A difficult choice; both the US and UK market saw many spectacular titles released this year. Just rising slightly above anything else the year brought to our humble island for me, though, came Haibane Renmei, the sort of series that screamed “future classic” from the moment it began. Lush and expansive, and, in my opinion, deserving of all the praise it gathers.
Stuart Bullen: Over the years Gonzo have picked up their fair share of detractors, but when the digimation pioneers deliver the results are nothing short of spectacular, and highflying fantasy Last Exile is the jewel in their sparkling crown. Gorgeously animated, genuinely heartfelt and spectacularly entertaining it deserves every inch of its success.
Paul: Although I’m tempted to side with Miyazaki’s classic movie Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, I can’t look past the ultimate sci-fi western; Cowboy Bebop. The UK had been waiting so long for this seminal series that I’m sure many had given up hope of ever seeing Spike and company set foot on British soil, but a revitalized Beez quickly stole my heart with their quick fire Bebop releases and so now everyone can enjoy the coolest anime series ever committed to film; not to mention a career defining jazz and blues soundtrack from the grotesquely talented Yoko Kanno.
[Click here to go back to the 2005 year in review contents page.]
