I've been an anime fan ever since Manga Video began releasing these strange, violent, new Japanese cartoons in the UK. These days I've drifted away a bit but still put my head round the door from time to time. So I thought I'd share some of my all-time favourite anime scenes. Obviously I'm limited to stuff I could find on Youtube, which is why there's nothing from Studio Ghibli. (Anything that pops up on YT gets nuked almost immediately.) and quite a few others I either could not find at all or the clip was too long or poor quality or somebody put Linkin park over the top of it.
So, in no particular order, here's a buncha scenes I rather liked.None of them are exactly obscure but you try finding clips of Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gotaman on Youtube. Enjoy.
End Of Evangelion - Asuka's Last Stand
Teenage mecha pilot Asuka Langley is on her own, in a mech unit rapidly running out of power, as she battles nine hostile units in a brutal hand to hand fight
Asuka gets a lot of flak for being an utter bitch but she redeems herself here by kicking some righteous ass. And then you get one of the most chilling scenes in anime history.
Macross - Do You Remember Love? - Minmay Sings
In which the fate of the Earth rests on one Space Fortress, a handful of transforming mecha - and a teenage girl singing a gentle love song.
Only the Japanese would think of weaponising Idol Singers and this is the scene I use when I want to explain that Anime does things differently. I also like the song. No seriously. I even went and bought the soundtrack CD.
The Cockpit - The Man Who Didn't Sell His Soul To The Devil
A disgraced Luftwaffe fighter pilot is given a last chance to redeem himself by escorting a captured B17 and her cargo to the rocket testing site at Peenemunde. When he finds out what the cargo is, a terrible choice has to be made. Sacrifice his honour and a woman he loves or allow a horrific weapon to be unleashed on the world.
Macross Frontier - The Sing-Off
Another musical moment from the latest entry in the Macross Franchise.
Fighter Pilot Alto is sharing a moment with the two girls in his life - pop idol Sheryl and aspiring songstress Ranka.
When a familiar song comes on the radio, the girls decide to serenade the bewildered Alto.
Poor Alto clearly has no idea what the hell is going on. Can you blame him?
A charming little scene and a ridiculously catchy song to boot.
Dominion Tank Police - The Puma Twins Dance
Masamune Shirow's tale of a dystopic future sees the titular Tank Police facing cyborg badass Buaku and his two catgirl sidekicks. Massive property damage ensues.
Here, the villainous twosome are cornered by a SWAT team. What they need is a distraction...
Here, the villainous twosome are cornered by a SWAT team. What they need is a distraction...
Because they were frigging cool.
Speaking of Project A-Ko...
Project A-Ko : The Ultimate Chickfight
High School Queen B-Ko Daitokuji has spent the entire film trying to get rid of rival A-Ko Magami. Since nothing else has worked, B-Ko decides to do the job herself.
Oh, did I mention that A-Ko has superpowers? And B-Ko is a genius inventor?
And that there's some hostile aliens invading as well? The result is spectacular.
Black Lagoon - Revy v The Giant Nazi
A Neo Nazi gets the drop on pirate/gunslinger/psycho Revy but then makes the mistake of monologuing. He really should have been paying attention to what his supposed victim was doing...
Cowboy Bebop The Movie - Spike vs Elektra
Space Bounty Hunter Spike Spiegel is snooping about somewhere he's not supposed to be when passing agent Elektra busts him. The resulting fight is...well one person is taking it seriously.
Male anime characters tend to come in three varieties:
1. Cocky 2. Moody 3. Hapless doormat.
The easygoing Spike manages to avoid all of these and is, incidentally a bona fide badass.
In truth it's the music that makes this clip for me. Yoko Kanno couldn't write a bad soundtrack
if she tried and the combination of the very danceable "Information high" plus Sharon Apple's
mindf**k light show make this my favourite scene in the film. Not bad considering the last third of the film is one long procession of coolness.
and finally.
(Replacing the scene I originally had here.)
1. Cocky 2. Moody 3. Hapless doormat.
The easygoing Spike manages to avoid all of these and is, incidentally a bona fide badass.
Macross Plus - Re-entry
Fighter pilot Isamu Dyson tries to sneak through Earths defences by switching off his systems and feefalling. Meanwhile love-interest Myung tries to escape from her trap and rogue AI Sharon Apple uses her hypnotic powers to blow her audience's minds .
if she tried and the combination of the very danceable "Information high" plus Sharon Apple's
mindf**k light show make this my favourite scene in the film. Not bad considering the last third of the film is one long procession of coolness.
and finally.
(Replacing the scene I originally had here.)
Ghost In The shell - Kusanagi Beats Up a Bad Guy
Ghost In The Shell is rightly praised for the quality of the animation and an intelligent storyline that combined cyberpunk with some exploration of the human condition. The Wachowski Brothers openly cited GITs as a big influence on The Matrix.
But as far as I'm concerned, the highlight of the entire film was cyborg badass Mtoko Kusanagi's brutal takedown of a fleeing terrorist. When your skin is plastic you can have all sorts of fun extras built in. Like thermal camouflage, for instance. The poor sod literally never knew what hit him.
That's my favourites. What're yours?
That's all folks.
It's funny how these characters have Eastern-Western names. Poor Asuka; that was a tragic ending. I remember watching "Johnny Sokko and His Giant Robot," "UltraMan," and "Speed Racer" when I was a kid in the 70s. These clips brought back lots of those memories!
ReplyDeleteThis stuff tends to remind me of Prince Planet BigD.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting, mixed-up historical development for sure.
Cheers, ic
Ian, Helena, glad you liked it.
ReplyDeleteThe series you mentioned were a little before my time but I grew up watching Ulysses 31 and Battle of The Planets - I just didn't realise they were Japanese until years later.
Awesome videos, Big D! On Minmay sings, I found myself liking the song too lol! The Cockpit scene from The Man Who Didn’t Sell His Soul was gut-wrenching, I see what you mean. The Sing-Off, that was charming. B-Ko in The Ultimate Chickfight, she was cool, I can see why you like her. On the last one, Only You, that was a nice musical interlude in the playground at the end. I really don’t know a lot about amine but I enjoyed what you posted, quite entertaining!
ReplyDelete