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REVIEW: Phoenix DVD 1

"Resurrection" was an insult: they completely gutted the original story.

...For the simple if obscure reason that I have read the originals, and in every case the originals outstrip the watered-down animated versions. "Resurrection" was an insult: they completely gutted the original story.

I certainly am beginning to have a big problem with the idea that animation companies reworking series of Tezuka MUST use his animation style or the fans will go berserk. When the backgrounds are more luxurious than the character drawings then you have a problem.

I'm glad I finally found a review of this series. I keep almost picking it up in the store, but putting it down because I haven't heard anything about it. Now I can make a decision about it.

I think the reason they didn't adapt the shorter stories is because many of those stories have previously been adapted in the anime adaptations of Phoenix that came out in the 1980s and they wanted to tackle the stories that had not yet been made into anime prior to this series. I encourage fans of the Phoenix manga (both of us!) to track down the OAV version of "Karma" made in the 80s, which I think came out quite well.

I'm drawing a total blank here because I'm not thinking too hard about the question, but can anyone name an example of an anime series that was popular in the US which had a distinctly non-"anime style" (aargh) look to it?

In the midst of these mixed reviews of Phoenix, I think that people should be more aware of the Tezuka works. Disney popularized the greatness of Miyazaki dubbing the various Ghibli films. Ishinomori was popularized with the Americanized Super Sentai series called "Power Rangers". The guy that made Magical Witch Sally and Gigantor popularized the mahou shoujo and mecha series. But it seems Tezuka isn't popular enough. I mean, he should be since he invented modern anime and my opinion is that the only manga-ka dead or alive that is close to greatness is Ishinomori (Tezuka was a great influence on him). Plus, I'm a dubbing and subbing person, so I might be this DVD.

It's an extreme minority viewpoint to have, but I actually like Osamu Tezuka's character designs and have a much bigger problem with the idea that people decide not to watch certain series at all based solely on the perceived notion that the character designs "look old." I do believe this negative bias against any character designs that don't adhere to what people commonly perceive as "anime style" (I hate to use that term since it doesn't REALLY exist, but people typically use it to denote the aesthetic generally carried throughout Shonen Jump) is what turns people off to most of Osamu Tezuka's (as well as Leiji Matsumoto's) work. I think this has a lot to do with why even the updated character designs as used in Dezaki and Sugino's Black Jack OAVs failed to generate much interest among anime fans in the US.

I'm drawing a total blank here because I'm not thinking too hard about the question, but can anyone name an example of an anime series that was popular in the US which had a distinctly non-"anime style" (aargh) look to it?

I'm drawing a total blank here because I'm not thinking too hard about the question, but can anyone name an example of an anime series that was popular in the US which had a distinctly non-"anime style" (aargh) look to it?