A look at the Iron Man anime from the Marvel Anime series.
The Iron Man anime wasn’t bad. For some reason, I expected it to be. I remember all the Marvel Anime series came to G4TV, and the network advertised them heavily. For some reason, I never really had the urge to tune in. Then, I figured why not. So, I started watching them all in order, starting with Iron Man.
About the Iron Man Anime
I won’t get into everything you need to know about Tony Stark and Iron Man. If you are watching this anime, there is a good chance you read the comics, watched the American animated series, or are a fan of the Avengers or Iron Man MCU movies. Well, you may also enjoy it if you don’t know anything about Iron Man but are a fan of anime in general. Specifically mecha-type and giant robot anime.
This story starts with Tony Stark going to Japan to introduce and supervise the construction of the new ARC reactor station. The station represents a form of clean, free and unlimited energy. However, from the moment he arrives, there is trouble. That trouble comes mainly in the form of a terrorist organization known as Zodiac.
That’s all you really need to know to before watching. I will say the story is surprisingly complex, filled with political intrigue, shady characters and maybe even a word or two about the human condition. However, all the stuff you would expect from an action anime series is present. Each episode has Iron Man facing off against a giant mecha-like threat. After all, what else would you expect to find in Japan?
There is a lot to like about this anime. It’s clever, witty, well-rounded and even manages to tie everything up neatly in just 12-episodes.
The Dialogue
Keep in mind this is a real anime. The English dialogue is dubbed from its original Japanese. I watched the English dub, but the subbed version is available as well. Sometimes dubs can cross into being a little awkward, but the voice talent employed here is good. The dialogue is snappy and Tony Stark’s little witticisms come across well. None other than Adrian Pasdar voices Tony Stark/Iron Man. Yup, the dude that played Senator Nathan Petrelli in Heroes.
The Writing
The writing moves the story along at a quick pace. Somehow, the writers managed to fit a big story into a series of mostly self-contained episodes. Each episode has a satisfying beginning, middle, and end. Yet, each episode serves to move the overall plot along. The good writing is due to the awesome and talented Warren Ellis guiding the overall story.
The Animation
With the Madhouse animation studio at the helm, you would expect top of the line animation. In this case, you would be right. The animation flows smoothly, even during the fast-paced action sequences. You can tell a lot of work went into getting this thing moving the right way.
The Verdict
Although well-made, I cannot say that everything about this series was great. I enjoy an intelligent story, and Iron Man certainly has one. However, none of the big reveals will be very surprising if you pay attention to what’s going on. Overall, I would say this series is worth a watch. The show appeals to several different groups at the same time, so it has the power to pull in crossover fans. You can probably get through all the episodes in a day or two and feel satisfied when it is over.
The show is a nice cross between many of my favorite things, which include the Iron Man movies, comic books, and anime. I didn’t find myself overwhelmed by it. For instance, I don’t think I will ever watch it again. But, that’s just me. You may thoroughly love it. There is a lot there to love. For me, this isn’t the best nor the worst, Just something entertaining to pass the time.
Iron Man is only the first of four in this Marvel Anime series. The next one is Wolverine.
The Iron Man anime is available everywhere you would expect to find it. Here are a few places if you’re interested:
Everything influences everything. The whole of humanity is just an echo of the past. If not that, then not this. We are all alive because others lived first. We hate because others hated. We love because others loved and gave it a name.
We speak because others spoke. We are, because others were. Your genes look good on you despite the fact that thousands and thousands of people wore them before you. There is nothing new under the sun.
We build on what came before. We assume we came up with something new, never knowing the seed of that idea was planted way before you picked the fruit.
Who are you? Are you your father? Your mother? Your grandparents? Are you a complex system made up of a complex system made up of a complex system of everything and nothing? Divinity lies in our cells as it lies to our thoughts. We are forever, but not in the way most think.
Everything influences everything. Today, when you say what you say, it will affect what your children’s children’s children will think. Think about that.
Think about it as you realize that your very thoughts were crafted before they entered your mind. Just as it all echoes forward, it all echoes back. We are a moment in time and our lives are made up of a trillion, trillion infinitesimal moments such as this one here…and this one here…and this one here.
Who are you? What are you? Why do you breathe? Why do you die? Why do you live?
I suppose that in the end, it is what it is. For if it was not, then how could it ever be?
Before we get into it, I just wanna say: Hey people! How the hell have ya been?? What’s good with ya? How’s life? Feel free to holla at me:)We are going to break this down into three sections. First music, then poetry. Some of you signed up for one or the other, but not both – the third section is miscellaneous stuff. Lots of text, so if you hate seeing big blocks of words…feel free to just click the links.
No new stuff…sorry. For a while, I didn’t even have the willpower to record anything new. Once I did get the willpower to do it, my equipment stopped working. However, just today, I was able to record a test track so maybe I will be able to get some new music done soon. I will upload the test track in a day or so for you to listen to.
I plan to complete two projects. One is SB Retro, which consists of old unfinished tracks from a thousand years ago. The other is the Practice Words mixtape which will be all of the songs I did using Big B beats. You already heard most of them; I just have to put them together in one collection.
I also want to start making beats again. There’s only so much you can do using beats that you do not own the rights to. I can’t afford to be paying dudes for commercial use of their beats. So I guess I gotta try my hand at making my own. Either that or finding creative commons beats that allow commercial usage.
I am still down to collaborate, rhyme on anybody’s beat or whatever. I really want to do some more experimental type music.
Notice the last new song I posted on my blog was Empty Hallways…in September of last year!
Not much to report on the poetry front neither. The last three poetry posts on my blog were two involving iambic heptameter and one about some of my short twitter poems. Check em out. There’s audio and video on the first one.
I was supposed to have my second chapbook of poetry available way before now as well, but the project stagnated. The original plan was to make three chapbooks and then combine them into one book. I’m thinking I may skip straight to the single volume. Any thoughts?
On a similar note, my first chapbook, Sentiments of the Cerebral, is available on Amazon for Kindle and e-reader devices. Check it out.
I’m trying to think of things I need to add to my site. Any feedback is very welcome. I know I need a dedicated “downloads” page. But what else?
I’m also working on an urban fantasy novel. You know, with magic, vampires, and crazy shit like that. But that’s outside the scope of this email 🙂 Check my site for more details on that.
I also noticed that I can no longer send these types of updates to Facebook. They turned off that service. So from here on out, I will post these newsletter type emails straight to my blog as posts after I send em out to my subscribers. I’ll also post the whole thing straight into my fan page as a post. It doesn’t reach as many people that way though 🙁
Ah well. That’s all for today. I’d like to make these updates more often, but of course, that means I need to be doing more stuff to justify em 🙂 I want to hear from you fine people more often though. Help me help you!
PRESS
“WORDS ON POETS: SILENCIO BARNES In the tradition of slam poetry, Silencio Barnes really delivers to the audience. His self published chapbook is titled “Sentiments of the Cerebral”, it exposes a lot of truth and depth. This chapbook is no waste of ink and is a must for your collection of Lehigh Valley Poets. Silencio is a much anticipated and popular featured poet at West Side Poetry at the Hava Java Café. In the mid-spring he will be featured in the touring project, “Wednesday In Motion”. For copies of his work, contact him or Word Wednesday.” Yodi, wordwednesdays.blogspot.com
A review of Witchblade, the Anime series. A surprisingly moving emotional drama disguised as an over-the-top action series.
Note: This is a review of the Witchblade anime series. For my review of the Witchblade television series, go here
The Witchblade anime is a 24-episode series based on the Witchblade comic book by Top Cow. Now before getting into it, there are a few things I want to address for fans of the comic and live action television series. First off, this anime is not really an adaptation of the comic or TV show; it is a new story that only borrows a few elements from the source material. However, the anime (as well as the manga), IS considered canon…somehow. It takes place in a future Japan.
A second point is that this is a true anime. The series is rife with anime tropes, anime pacing, anime-like storytelling and humor (including gratuitous amounts of fan service). So if you are not a fan of anime, then this might not be for you. If you’re a fan of the Witchblade comic, this series might throw you off a bit as it is nothing like the story of Sara Pezzini.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about this anime.
The Witchblade anime tells the story of Masane Amaha and her precocious daughter Rihoko. Six years before the start of the show, Masane survives a devastating earthquake. She is an amnesiac with no memories of her life before the earthquake. She was found with her infant child and a gemmed bracelet around her arm.
At the start of the first episode, she and her daughter arrive in Tokyo looking to start a new life and stay low from the child welfare service. Once they arrive, things start happening. A visit from the child welfare folks leads to them taking Rihoko from her mother. Both of them end up on the run. After the Witchblade activates, Masane is found and put to work by a shady corporation that claims ownership of the Witchblade that Masane is in possession of. They tell her they can help her reunite with her daughter if she is willing to work for them. Action ensues.
At first, I didn’t like it. The show came off as so much been-there, done-that anime fare. It had all the trappings that you would expect and are probably tired of. Huge breasted heroine, check. Plucky, bright and very adult kid, check. Lecherous old man, check. You know, typical stuff.
However, something odd happened. The moment when I realized that I liked the Witchblade anime was a little surprising. At some point, I realized that I cared for the characters. It took a while, but I think the creators did a good job of building up the human relationships in the story. At one point, it’s like whatever, and then suddenly, you care about the interactions between the characters and what’s going on with them.
The relationship between Masane and her daughter is beautiful and well played over the course of the series. The interaction between the main character and the rest of the cast also grows over time. The amount of real emotion I felt when things started getting more intense later on surprised me as well.
In this story, the Witchblade is still a mysterious object that grants the female user immense power. When using the Witchblade, Masane’s looks change and so does her outfit…yes, this is where much the fan service comes into play.
There are inferior clones of the Witchblade as well which the antagonists of the series use. The Cloneblades, much like the Witchblade, also transform the female users into their skimpy battle gear. So, we get many intense action sequences consisting or damn near naked women trying to slice one another in half.
Oddly though, the action sequences tend towards brevity. They are frequent, but they don’t make up for much of the overall series. If you are into story and character development, this is good. If you are into action, action and more action…this might leave you a little upset.
As a fan of action anime, I was a little disappointed, especially since I expected a mostly action driven series. But as a lover of a good, character driven story, this show worked for me. In fact, I would say the action part of this anime plays a secondary role to the story of the main character trying to be there for her daughter and build a future for her.
I think it’s that emotional story that will draw people to this series that would not otherwise watch this type of thing. Especially Rihoko’s part in the story, she’s just so adorable! She plays the perfect child-adult foil to Masane’s adult-child version of mothering.
There’s a lot to like about this series. As usual, I am leaving out a LOT of plot and story information to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible. I will say this though. You may see a scene of half-naked women fighting or an image of the hugely breasted Masane (there’s a reason that some affectionately term it Milfblade.
But don’t let the imagery fool you. The wrapping promises action and fan service, and there is a lot of that, but the real story here is very emotional and adult. It’s the story of a mother showing, proving and sacrificing in the name of the overwhelming love that she has for her daughter.
For more information on the anime series, try the usual places:
Some may have been wondering why I’ve been putting out a bunch of short poems with the hashtag #TMMPoetry – well, nobody asked me, but I figured I’d let ya know anyway 🙂 It comes from an NPR promotion from their Tell Me More program.
Here at TELL ME MORE, we will once again commemorate National Poetry Month with “Muses and Metaphor,” a series combining two of our passions, poetry and social media, and we need your help.
I don’t even know if this is still ongoing, but Baby Mama told me about it and I liked the idea. It gave me a reason to try some off-the-cuff short verse again. I notice some have just used snippets from larger poems, but I like to make mines up on the spot and see what I get. Most of the ones I write are in iambic heptameter or some form of fourteener, and some are just free verse.
I #amwriting a chapter long dialogue infodump :/ we’ll see if we can change that once the draft is done
When I started, I was on a small vacation from work. Unfortunately, when I started back up at the 9 to 5, the writing stagnated. I did do a lot of thinking about my story, and that’s good. But thinking about it ain’t writing it.
It’s not just the regular job though. I heard several times that for writers, especially discovery writers, the story might not make itself apparent until you are several thousands of words in. I can attest to that and say it is absolutely true. Approaching the 30,000-word mark, I started to finally see the beginning of the shape of my story. That disturbed me…greatly.
I #amwriting and I’m at 25,000 words in. This is a milestone for me 🙂 a quarter of my goal.
30,000 words is a lot of words. I did not want to think that all of this writing was for nothing. Keep in mind that I said that I am only just STARTING to see the SHAPE of my story.
That means I have 30,000 words that are pretty much worthless. And it also means that I hit a stumbling block. Everything in me wants me to just start the whole thing over from the beginning with all of the changes I need to make. I need to make my main character more of a dick. I need to start further back in the timeline than I initially started with. I need to set up the situation in a completely different way than I originally intended. I need to start from scratch.
But all of the masters have told me that I need to keep going forward. I need to finish this rough draft.
Two things here: First is that statement about going back in the timeline and the other is the idea of a rough draft.
Timeline. A constant failure of mines is thinking too far back. Stories are supposed to begin when something changes. Unfortunately, I tend to think of everything in epic scale. For instance: I had an idea for an epic fantasy series. I started writing it as I do most things. No forethought, just sit down, start typing, and see what comes out. Well, once I started typing, I started thinking of all the things that happened to lead up to that current moment. I had a female protagonist, but then I thought about her parents. What was it about them that made her who and what she was? Well, thinking of her parents led me to conjuring up an entire epic fantasy series dealing with her father and his cousin. Yes…a whole trilogy.
Plotting out that series in my mind, I THEN had an idea for an epic fantasy SERIES that dealt with the progenitor of one of the secondary characters. This would be a series that took place in the far distant past. So I started thinking on that. Overwhelmed by it all, I just gave up altogether, but I never stopped thinking about all three epic storylines. But do you see the utter madness of it? That’s why in my previous post, I said I realized that I was not ready for the epic fantasy.
And this problem of mines has come back to haunt me. Once I started realizing the shape and path of my current story, my mind just started adding to it and adding to it. I wanted this to be a single book with a beginning, middle and end. But the more I think about it and the more I create, the more there is to add. I am already thinking about setting up things that will not bear any fruit until book 3 or 4. But I haven’t even made my way through book 1 yet! It makes me want to just stop altogether.
The other thing is the rough draft. From what I can see, the terms “first” and “rough” are interchangeable. But I’m starting to suspect that discovery writers always have the burden of writing at least one extra draft. I know that when I make it through this very rough draft, it is probably not going to be anything like a coherent story. This is my rough draft. When I’m done, I’ll have to turn it into my first draft. Once I do that, then I will be able to really dig into it and start the process of putting it together correctly.
And that’s ANOTHER thing that has me frozen like a deer in the headlights. I suppose for some, this must come easy. But to me, it’s one of the hardest things I have ever attempted.
So the writing has stagnated. I started writing this post a few days weeks ago. In the meantime, I’ve been doing some writing ABOUT my story, but no actual story writing. As I stated above, the problem is that the story has changed. I don’t know how to continue with the writing.
Epiphany: Instead of making the main character clueless, I’ll make him completely in the know, so he can subvert the norms 🙂 I #amwriting
To give an example: I figured out a few things about my main two characters, which changes everything that I have written about them previously. Now, how do I continue with what I am writing when the things I am writing about are no longer true to the story? Do you see what I’m saying?
I had three ideas to try to make it through.
Continue writing, but just change the character interactions to match what they should be. The problem with that is, because the characters are drastically different, certain events that I have already written and ones that I am currently writing will also be drastically different. Some scenarios probably won’t happen at all. So it would be silly to just change up the character motivations, language, thought processes etc.
Just jump forward in the story to a scene that I know will happen and write from there. This idea appealed to me the most. It made the most logical sense. But it would still leave a lot of unwritten stuff that I would have to get to eventually anyway. I still want that stuff there so I can be more grounded in what comes later.
Outline, as best I can, all of the events from start up until the current point in the story. That way, I will have the skeleton of the story there for me to reference. With that in place, I can continue from where I left off just like idea #1.
I figure I could go with all three ideas. I can outline the new backstory and early chapters up until the point where I currently am, and then I can jump just a little bit forward in the story and just go from there. Of course, once I make it to the end, I can go back and rewrite the whole beginning.
Does any of that make sense? Even with my many split infinitives and sentences that begin with conjunctions? Well, it makes sense to me. And it’s for me that I’m writing this blog post…so there 😛
Oh yea, in my last post I promised you people links! I’ll add them to the next post. I’ve been sitting on this post for so long, I figured I’d just get it out. I will add some audio like I promised though 🙂
For working writers and amateurs alike, there are a lot of commercial products out there to help you along the way with your writing career. The problem is that many of them are very expensive or have some kind of unnecessarily steep learning curve…or both. Here is some free software you can use to write and help you along with your writing. I’m gearing this article towards fiction writers, but this software is extremely useful to writers of all types.
It wasn’t until I got serious about my own writing that I realized just how awesome and powerful a tool yWriter is. It is a program for writers created by a writer. yWriter is billed as a word processor with extra features to help you organize your novel. But I think of it as more of a story management tool.
Not only can you write in it, but you can ORGANIZE with it. You can use it to break your work down by scene and chapter. You can make a database of characters, places, items and notes. In fact, of everything in this list, it is probably the most useful, versatile and powerful piece of free writing software. For each scene, you can add a description, POV characters, individual scene notes and goals. It’s all there. – http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html
yEdit is a simple text editor. You can think of it as notepad but with a couple of extra features. It is very no-frills and no-nonsense. This tool is useful for those of you that need to just type. Save the editing for later. To help with that, yEdit includes a target word count feature. For example, you put in 3000 as your target word count and you can watch it count down to zero as you type the words. This is helpful if you are trying to write with a daily word quota. – http://www.spacejock.com/yEdit2.html
Q10 is a full screen text editor. If you do not know what that means, think of the old word processors. It takes up the entire screen leaving you free of any background distractions. Much like yEdit, this can be a great tool for those of you that need to just sit down and write. It has word count settings and a timer alarm as well. For fun, or just to change it up, it can use typing sound effects.
I use Q10 whenever I want to just write. To put that in perspective, I use yEdit when I am writing segments or scenes. I use Q10 when I just want to pound out a few thousand words with no distractions, which is typically how I start most of my writing. – http://baara.com/q10/
Dark Room is similar to Q10. It is also a free full-screen writing environment. I have never used it, but I see it come up often, so I’m including it here as a bonus. – http://they.misled.us/dark-room
I LOVE Roughdraft. It’s so simple and it just works. Now, Roughdraft is no longer maintained, so it may look a little dated, but it also still works, which is the most important part. — “Although suitable for general use, it has features specifically designed for creative writing: novels, short stories, articles, plays and screenplays. It’s designed to be as practical as possible, offering all the features you need, but without being complicated or awkward to use.” —
I found Roughdraft very useful for organizing my writing along with my notes (which Roughdraft saves along with the current file in the same directory). That is to say, I think it’s a very useful tool for when you are first developing your story and just writing out some scenes as you try to figure out what it is all going to be about. – http://www.salsbury.f2s.com/rd.htm
5. Notepad
Yes, I said it, Notepad! You don’t need anything more than that to write. Notepad files take up very little space and the interface of notepad is very minimalistic. A bunch of icons, menu items and sidebars will not distract you. I honestly do not know why people do not use it more often.
Since it’s just plain and simple text, anything you write in notepad can then be imported into any other program including all of the ones mentioned above. If Notepad is not enough, there are other notepad-like editors available free with a lot more features. I personally like Notepad++ because it has tabs, which can really help when you need multiple text files open or if you want one to write on and one to keep notes etc. You can also try Notepad2 or TED Notepad or even WordPad if you want.
Now, there are a LOT more free writing resources out there, but I wanted to keep this to the things that I use most. There are also some excellent free word processing programs out there like AbiWord and OpenOffice. I will write another article on other free programs and tools, including free online-only apps.
The crack epidemic was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States throughout the entirety of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in several social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in American inner city neighborhoods, a resulting backlash in the form of tough on crime policies, and a massive spike in incarceration rates.
— Here is an unedited and explicit view into the mind of a man that deeply ponders the weighty issues and concerns of the day —
Amazon.com: New Jack City: Special Edition (Dbl DVD) (O-Sleeve) : Wesley Snipes, Ice T, Mario Van Peebles, Judd Nelson, Chris Rock, Mario Van Peebles: Movies & TV
In the spirit of finishing all the old stuff and not starting new stuff, I have been working on a fiction story I started and then abandoned previously. It’s a piece of contemporary urban fantasy that I started for NaNoWriMo last year and then put to the side after only a few thousand words.
I spent years thinking about and coming up with ideas for an epic fantasy, but realized that I just wasn’t ready skillwise to write it, so I decided to get back to this story tentatively titled Rattle and Thump🙂 I figured it would be short, and good for practice.
Patricia T. O’Conner on First Drafts
The reason for this blog post is so that I can talk to myself about what it is I’m doing. This is my first serious attempt at writing a whole novel. I’m having some trouble with it and honestly, this shit is hard. I’m about 20,000 words in and I’m shooting for about 100,000 which I can probably chop down to 80-90,000 once it’s done.
So, like I was saying, this is just me talking to myself about what’s going on with this story. I wanted to keep a record. Maybe it can also help new writers figure out how to get started with their own stuff.
First off, I’m something of a discovery writer. That means I tend to not plot and outline ahead of time. I just write and see where it goes. The downside of this is that there’s a good chance that a large chunk of what I’m writing is going to disappear when I start the next draft. That is to say, a big chunk of the discovery process is…discovering. So that’s a lot of fruitless writing. However, I also do outline a little. I just do it as I go, as things change in the story. Once I can see where I’m headed, then I can start outlining more and plotting ahead more.
To put this in perspective, when I started writing, I had a definite ending in my mind and a start. However, I had no idea how I would get from one to the other. So I just started writing. After a few thousand words, I have a bunch of new ideas, and I know the material slightly better. Now I have several little scenarios that I know must happen to bridge the gap between beginning to end. So the challenge becomes how do I get from A to B in order to eventually reach Z.
This creates a new set of issues. I don’t even fully know what’s going on yet, and my characters haven’t become human yet, that is to say, I barely know them. The fantasy elements are also a problem. I’m not sure of what type of magic system or what types of beings populate this world. I’m 20k words in and I’m still not absolutely sure if I’ll have the vampires and werewolves and shit like everybody else.
But to go back to the A to B thing. In trying to get to B. In making that attempt, I learn a bunch of new things and the story moves much differently than I expected. Now that changes my pseudo outline and even my ending and also my beginning. I’m not sure, but I think this might be something that stops a lot of writers. Because now, the desire to go back and start over is really strong. You want to make the stuff you wrote previously match the stuff you’re writing now. However, all of the years of writing advice I ever heard tells me this one thing: Finish the rough/first draft!
That is the advice I’m following. I am going to finish this draft before I change anything at all. If I get caught up constantly going back and changing shit and rewriting things, then I’ll never finish. And I’ll also get bored with it, a problem that I am very, very prone to (hence the whole getting old stuff finished thing).
Ernest Hemingway on Writing the First Draft
On a more nuts and bolts level, I’m noticing that it is very, very easy for me to fall into passive voice. I use it all the time. And as somebody that writes articles and copy for others, I realize this is the 666. But I can’t help it. That means that when I go back to do the second draft, I’m sure it’s going to be a super tedious, sentence by sentence rewrite…and that scares me.
One thing that I didn’t realize, and a lot of writing books and writing podcasts don’t talk about it, is that I’m supposed to be writing in scenes. It seems obvious, but it came to me as something of an epiphany. I always thought of chapters flowing from one to the other with each chapter technically being something of a scene. But then I realized that each chapter itself is made up of a series of scenes. I came to understand that was the missing element preventing me from seeing how to segue from one point to another. I didn’t have to write everything between A and B, I just needed to write a series of individual scenes that steer the narrative that way.
This record is my attempt to tell myself that I’m serious this time. I can’t get better unless I write and I have to finish one of these stories. Besides, I may be gone before 2012 lets out. I want to at least make an attempt at doing something I love. Let’s see how it goes and how far we can take it. Unfortunately, working on this story and thinking about it constantly has stalled my work on a bunch of other, non-related stuff…but we’ll figure it out.
If you have any questions about this process, or want me to get into more detail about something particular, feel free to leave a message here or drop me a line and I’ll answer. Maybe we can figure this craziness out together! 🙂
In the next post, I’ll add a bunch of links to people more accomplished and talented than me talking about writing first and rough drafts. I may even add some audio.
Birds of Prey is short lived television series based on the DC Comics publication of the same name.
Birds of Prey The Television Series
I had no idea that Birds of Prey even existed. I came across it during a wiki walk while looking for something unrelated regarding the Batman mythos. After a little research, I found many people agreed it was an okay show with a little room for growth. Unfortunately, since it never got past the first season, it was never allowed that potential growth.
What is Birds of Prey?
Birds of Prey is an action television series based off DC Comic’s comic book series of the same name. The show only ran for one season between 2002 and 2003. It features three women fighting crime. That’s pretty much it.
Helena Kyle aka Huntress is the brawn and main character. Barbara Gordon aka Oracle is the brains, and Dinah Redmond is the newest and youngest member. They beat-up the bad guys and take down nefarious plots in New Gotham. Yes, there are other characters and even a main villain, but we will keep it to the basics.
Where Birds of Prey Failed
Now, if it ended there, they could have had a much more decent show. But here is where it gets a little muddy. I think this show could have been much more successful if they had debranded it. It’s easy to see that this is what made the show a little stagnant. Since this review is about the television show and not the comic book, I am not going to speak on the comic much. However, I will say the producers and writers took extensive liberties with the source material.
They could have just as easily left out the whole Batman connection they invented and still would have had the same story, since he doesn’t actually have anything to do with the story. But like I said, they could have removed every DC reference and it would have been a tighter show for it.
As an example, Helena Kyle is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. This could have been left out. Many characters from the comic series make either a brief appearance or no appearance in the show at all, even some of the more regular ones. There is a lot more to this but I don’t want to get too much into the details of it. It’s understandable that they took liberties with the source material but they took the wrong liberties.
Another reason that they should have left the DC elements out is their use of the whole “metahuman” concept. Admittedly, metahumans do exist in the DC Universe but they may have gone a little too far with it in this show. Everybody with any sort of ability is a metahuman. A metahuman is a person with some genetic trait that gives them some kind of ability (think Marvel mutants like the X-Men).
They overuse the phrase as well as the trope.
Birds of Prey Still Offers Plenty of Action
As this is mainly an action show, there is plenty of action. But in a post-Matrix world, it has become more and more difficult to impress with the type used in Birds of Prey. This is especially rough with the main character Huntress, whose use of over-the-top acrobatics during many of her fight scenes seem a little out of place much of the time.
I understand that you can only expect so much stylized choreography with a television show budget, but I swear they sometimes used the same exact shot of Huntress doing the same exact acrobatic fighting move during the same fight!
I know it sounds like I am beating this show down, but that is not the case. It is adequate for some lazy watching. It is full of action and even if the special effects aren’t the best, they are passable. The show could have been much, much better and I think if it had been renewed for another season or two, it would have grown into something truly good.
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7 Jul 2012
2 CommentsIron Man Anime Review – The Marvel Anime Series
A look at the Iron Man anime from the Marvel Anime series.
The Iron Man anime wasn’t bad. For some reason, I expected it to be. I remember all the Marvel Anime series came to G4TV, and the network advertised them heavily. For some reason, I never really had the urge to tune in. Then, I figured why not. So, I started watching them all in order, starting with Iron Man.
About the Iron Man Anime
I won’t get into everything you need to know about Tony Stark and Iron Man. If you are watching this anime, there is a good chance you read the comics, watched the American animated series, or are a fan of the Avengers or Iron Man MCU movies. Well, you may also enjoy it if you don’t know anything about Iron Man but are a fan of anime in general. Specifically mecha-type and giant robot anime.
That’s all you really need to know to before watching. I will say the story is surprisingly complex, filled with political intrigue, shady characters and maybe even a word or two about the human condition. However, all the stuff you would expect from an action anime series is present. Each episode has Iron Man facing off against a giant mecha-like threat. After all, what else would you expect to find in Japan?
There is a lot to like about this anime. It’s clever, witty, well-rounded and even manages to tie everything up neatly in just 12-episodes.
The Dialogue
Keep in mind this is a real anime. The English dialogue is dubbed from its original Japanese. I watched the English dub, but the subbed version is available as well. Sometimes dubs can cross into being a little awkward, but the voice talent employed here is good. The dialogue is snappy and Tony Stark’s little witticisms come across well. None other than Adrian Pasdar voices Tony Stark/Iron Man. Yup, the dude that played Senator Nathan Petrelli in Heroes.
The Writing
The writing moves the story along at a quick pace. Somehow, the writers managed to fit a big story into a series of mostly self-contained episodes. Each episode has a satisfying beginning, middle, and end. Yet, each episode serves to move the overall plot along. The good writing is due to the awesome and talented Warren Ellis guiding the overall story.
The Animation
With the Madhouse animation studio at the helm, you would expect top of the line animation. In this case, you would be right. The animation flows smoothly, even during the fast-paced action sequences. You can tell a lot of work went into getting this thing moving the right way.
The Verdict
Although well-made, I cannot say that everything about this series was great. I enjoy an intelligent story, and Iron Man certainly has one. However, none of the big reveals will be very surprising if you pay attention to what’s going on. Overall, I would say this series is worth a watch. The show appeals to several different groups at the same time, so it has the power to pull in crossover fans. You can probably get through all the episodes in a day or two and feel satisfied when it is over.
The show is a nice cross between many of my favorite things, which include the Iron Man movies, comic books, and anime. I didn’t find myself overwhelmed by it. For instance, I don’t think I will ever watch it again. But, that’s just me. You may thoroughly love it. There is a lot there to love. For me, this isn’t the best nor the worst, Just something entertaining to pass the time.
Iron Man is only the first of four in this Marvel Anime series. The next one is Wolverine.
The Iron Man anime is available everywhere you would expect to find it. Here are a few places if you’re interested:
Check out Other Anime Reviews by S. Barnes
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