The Fractal Hall Journal

Today’s sign of the impending apocalypse: Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy is due to be released next month.

A quick note on yesterday’s post: I’m not saying that “torture porn” in a Nightwing comic is either acceptable or unacceptable. To be honest, I have no interest in either the character or the title. But I’m still upset with DC about the Pa Kent thing. What can I say, my opinion on what constitutes a matter of importance where comics are concerned is a little skewed.

Kids’ toys: Can someone please tell me why the Transformers Classics line has so far released roughly a bajillion modern updates on Generation 1 characters, and yet appears to have no plans for an updated Wheeljack? Or why there’s no Wheeljack in Transformers: Animated? Or in the movie line? Sweet jumping Jesus, I need a new Wheeljack. I’ve only got 5 other versions of him.

You may all continue with your pointing and laughing.

Anime: As I think I’ve mentioned briefly before, I have fond memories of the Guyver animated series released in the 90s. I still find it odd that Japanese manga (a lot of it, anyway) is almost seen as a childish or girly thing to get, when back in the 80s and 90s (in Britain at least) it was seen as a wellspring of gore, horror and, ahem, “adult” situations. Anyway, there was a new updated Guyver series made a few years ago, and I can’t believe it’s taken until now for me to get round to watching it. I’ve seen the first couple of episodes that stick pretty closely to the first series, but I think it diverges pretty quickly after that as the creators get into the storylines that continued on after the previous run finished. I wish someone had the licence to release all the comics in English, because it’s really great stuff. Lots of action, lots of horror, and some of the greatest codenames ever given to giant mutated monsters.

I’m not sure whether it’s better than the original series yet, in that all the events are very compressed, to cover more ground in a shorter time. In the first series, you get more of a feel for the characters simply because you spend more time with them. On the other hand, the animation is way better this time around, and the second half of the first series was a fair bit ropier than the first half. Hopefully they did that a bit better this time round.

The first Guyver animation was actually made in the mid 80s, not long after the manga series had started, and had no connection to the series that followed later. I don’t have the link to hand, but if you check out “Guyver: Out Of Control” on YouTube, you’ll find it uploaded there. Very, very weird if you’ve never seen it before and you’re only familiar with the more recent series. Highlights include a main character with a strange doll-like face, and female Guyver with a seriously dodgy transformation scene.

SF: Given up on the second book of Kevin J. Anderson’s Saga of Seven Suns. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just average, and I’d rather read something great than slog my way though six more books of average. I’ve still got the Rebus series to finish, and Russel T’s tome, and I think I’m better off spending my time on them.

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Holy crap do I want to own an Alien/Predator chessboard. I have no idea where this sudden need for overpriced AVP tat is coming from, but boy is it intense.

I also notice io9 reporting an American live-action remake of Akira. Oh no oh no oh no. Is not going to work. Whinge whinge whinge.

In nicer news, getting through the latter half of Series 3 of Battlestar Galactica. It’s been awesome to see Dean Stockwell, Al Calavicci from Quantum Leap, turn up again, this time as a bad guy. Reminds me of how creepy he was as Devil-Al in that QL episode with Stephen King in it. Damn, I loved that show, and damn the show’s final episode was shitty. I really hope Galactica doesn’t screw the pooch when it comes to an end, because the rest of it’s been so very good.

With all the other superhero films doing so well, it’s going to be interesting to see how the X-Men franchise pans out in the next couple of years. It’s really the series that proved the viability of a new approach to rubber-trouser characters, in terms of faithfulness to the themes and stories of the original material, and a way of taking the best bits of what went before. Sure, Blade is technically the first of the successful comic book adaptations, but that really is in spite of the original rather than because. And I like the Tomb Of Dracula stuff.

If I were being pessimistic, I’d say I don’t have a whole lot of hope with the Magneto prequel. First of all, you’re not likely to find a young actor as good as Ian McKellan to take over the role, and someone of the calibre of, say, Hayden Christensen isn’t going to be able to handle what will inevitably be a pretty dark film. It was never going to be all bright pink flower-bunnies, but after The Dark Knight you can bet the message Hollywood will be taking from the public reaction is nightmarish, unrelenting grim is what’s required. There’s too much scope to mishandle this one.

Wolverine, on the other hand, had got Hugh Jackman going for it. The stupidest thing about X-Men 3 was the way Cyclops was killed off for essentially being a boring goody-goody leader type, only to be immediately replaced by a neutered Logan in the exact same role. A prequel means angry loner Logan, hopefully with a dollop of the sinister slaughter from X-Men 2. Also, Deadpool, and who doesn’t want to see a cinematic Deadpool? I just hope they use some of Grant Morrison’s take on the Weapon X programme; after all, there was a split-second shot of a “Weapon Plus” vial in The Incredible Hulk. Also, I don’t notice any stinkers on director Gavin Hood’s IMDB page, in the way that Brett Ratner’s previous convictions correctly indicated a screw-up.

Negatives? Well, Morrison aside I’ve never liked the Weapon X stuff. Gambit’s in it. The last X-Men film was poor and allegedly plagued with studio meddling, so is that going to play out this time too?

Wolverine’s a funny old character. First time I saw him was in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends when I was but a lad. He used his claws to make an impromptu kebab. So I kind of missed out on the edgy killer persona that so captivated a generation. Then he turned up in a few places- a Hulk comic, Spider-Man, a few other things- and he was, frankly, a bit of a dickhead. I must have missed out on the nuance of his mysterious loner thing, but then he was a short-arse in yellow lycra with a daft haircut who was being a twat to Peter Parker. I couldn’t really see the attraction, and to make it worse he turned up in every fucking issue of every fucking comic during the 90s.

I wouldn’t say I ever really warmed to the character, but he certainly bugged me less as time went on. And thanks to Jackman’s performance in the first film, I finally understood where the character was coming from. It was properly surprising, really, but I ended up rooting for him, in particular during the aforementioned rampage in the mansion in the second film. Funny how things change, but that really goes to show how good Jackman did at grounding the character, leaving me more optimistic than not for the solo film.

Still prefer Cyclops, though.

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Fractal Films: Dragonslayer (1981)

Well, this is one I haven’t seen for a while, although it’s a classic BBC 2 Saturday afternoon film- and in fact, that’s the very time and place I caught it.

Trading off of the early 80s Star Wars / Conan vibe, I don’t believe this film has ever been particularly well thought of. In fact, I honestly don’t recall whether or not I’ve ever heard anyone talk about the movie, never mind write about it. That said, it’s the kind of film that must have a cultish following- the kind of thing that’s bound to be someone’s all-time favourite, if only because they saw it at an early age.

Not a bad film at all, all things considered. Peter MacNichol (later to rise to the heights of supporting actor in Ally McBeal and Creepy Stereotypical Foreigner in Ghostbusters 2) is the unlikely sorceror’s apprentice hero. There’s an unsubtle message about the age of magic (represented by the dragon) being replaced by the age of organised religion (represented by Ian “Will be remembered as Emperor Palpatine despite being an award-winning Shakespearean actor” McDiarmid being squished by a tree).

But the highlight of the flick is undoubtably the dragon. It isn’t really revealed until the last 15 minutes or so, but to be fair the animatronic head and go-motion full body models are really creepy. It only really looks duff in the flying scenes, which unfortunately mostly occur during the climax. Oh, and the North Wales scenery where it was filmed is awesome, too.

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Volume 1

I’ve seen a number of positive reviews of the above in a few different places, so I picked it up after spotting its muted brown cover amongst the technicolour vomit explosion of Borders’ manga section.

I probably couldn’t have picked a better title to pick up after the long gap since last reading manga. Great creepy artwork, an interesting premise (a group of Buddhist students steal corpses to fulfil the post-mortem wishes of the unfortunate souls to let them find peace) and a pretty good translation. It took a while to get used to reading the panels from right to left, but I didn’t find it as distracting as I have in the past.

The only real criticism is I didn’t get why the main characters didn’t find the whole talking-to-the-dead stuff surprising at all. Not sure whether it’s meant to be commonplace within the story’s setting, if I missed something, or if it’s a deliberate choice the writer made. That said, I’ll certainly pick up volume 2 if I see it.

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My earliest giant robot related memory isn’t Transformers, but a Mazinger Z video I’d get my Dad to rent out for me from the local garage. I think it was a garage, anyway. May have been a newsagent. It certainly wasn’t a dedicated video shop. It would be a couple of years before Caerffili got one of those. I was 4, maybe 5, and I suspect the cartoon had a disproportionate effect on me. About the same time, S4C started showing their Welsh language dub of Voltron. These were the first anime programmes I remember watching, the other Japan related cartoon being Hanna-Barbera’s Godzilla, which I really loved.

It wasn’t until the early 90s that I became aware of Japanese anime having a specific kind of identity. Around then, the Guyver series was released on video, along with the publication of Manga Mania. The latter was a magazine that reprinted various stories, including the legendary Akira, Appleseed, and an adaptation of the mid-80s Godzilla reboot movie, another video rental that I’d loved when I was younger. I distinctly remember the accompanying article comparing the Gozilla movies’ new direction to Burton’s Batman. It was an informative read, and explained a lot about what constituted anime, manga, and Japanese comics.

The Guyver was a revelation. It was released along with a wave of other anime titles, all significant in that I’d never seen animation like it. It was dark, adult and pretty fucking violent. The creature designs were absolutely brilliant, the mysterious backstory intriguing, and the main character’s voice an annoying nasal whine.

I haven’t really watched much anime since the Guyver ended, only about half of Evangelion and Miyazaki’s films, and haven’t read any manga for a long while. The gap in my knowledge of manga as a genre emphasises the difference between my perception of manga and anime being largely horror-based adult material, and the current prejudice of manga being only for kids and (icky) girls. Needless to say, both skewed views are wrong, and very much a product of their respective times. It illustrates, perhaps, the limitations placed on the medium in Europe and America by two differing marketing philosophies seperated by about twenty years.

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