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Otaku Evolution Episode 279 – Astro Boy (2003)

Welcome back to Otaku Evolution!

I am so sorry it’s taken me this long to post a new video. I had terrible sciatica pain in my back for a few weeks, forcing me to sleep on a yoga mat on the floor of my room at night, and hampering my concentration on completing my viewing of this series, which is 50 episodes long! That, and my obsession with completing Chrono Cross (which is entirely my fault), slowed me down. But at least I mostly avoided my usual post-holiday funk.

In the bookend material here is the aftermath of that attack on me in my quarters at the end of last year. I wanted to show that one of Pen Pen’s students, Llewellyn, who was normally depicted as a child, has grown up since the last time I used him. As for the “Puffin Elite”, they’re characters that I created years and years ago that I never ended up introducing into my sprite comics. You’ll see me explore that story idea sometime this year. read more

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Otaku Evolution Episode 219 – Black Jack OVA (Eps 9-10)

 

You know, I’ve been real down about my videos lately, and doing a short video on something I’m not particularly passionate about doesn’t help. But it did give me an opportunity to reflect on my slight evolution in reviewing. An evolution in that, instead of just summarizing everything that happens in an anime, beat by beat, and occasionally making snide side comments, I’ve taken to doing more generalized summaries with a bit more of an emphasis on characters, atmosphere, themes, and the like. In other words, I generally actually *review* anime now. read more

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Otaku Evolution Episode 191 – Black Jack OVA (Eps 7-8)

Black Jack is glorious bullshit. It’s like watching the medical version of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure sometimes. You think you have a good grasp of the real life medical information being relayed, everything seems pretty grounded, if not always believable (just look at Pinoko), but then some wild nonsense like a talking thousands year old tree and a leaf boy are thrown at you and you’re left wondering what Osamu Tezuka, or Osamu Dezaki, were smoking that lead them to these plot beats. This is why I watch two episodes at a time, to get a decent sampling of both the realistic and fanciful, and still have episodes left for later. read more

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Otaku Evolution Episode 163 – Black Jack OVA (Episodes 5-6)

I have to be honest. I don’t really care for this crop of Black Jack episodes.  There are too many unnecessary moving parts in them that prevented them from being good. At least the “Owl of San Merida” had an interesting premise with the disappearing bullet holes, but adding the drama of the civil war and the old man just felt too extra. The sixth episode was a big waste of time, with a giant middle finger as an ending. I miss drug cacti.

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Otaku Evolution Episode 135 – Black Jack (OVA) 3-4

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed episodes from Osamu Dezaki’s Black Jack OVA, and these two episodes see the sagacious sawbones in tow of an ill-fated Latin American rebel force and try to find a hidden threat in the body of a promising young actress. Our favorite stitched up surgeon, our enigmatic expert, our heroic healer faces off against the military-industrial complex, biological weapons, and a rival who’s enthusiastic about euthanasia in two interesting, if not always brilliant, entries into his many adventures. read more