Rock Opera Revival

By: BRIAN THOMAS
Date: Saturday, June 04, 2005

The government of Japan is considering their child pornography law to include anime and manga. Of all the new porn anime titles released, about half feature sex acts involving schoolgirls. It's a touchy subject, since some argue that drawings don't have any specific age they're just lines on paper and there's no victim to protect. On the other hand, police suggest that there are links between violent anime porn and the rise in violent crimes against children, with at least one killer testifying that kid porn anime put ideas in his head that he subsequently acted on. I don't know if you can legislate the issue of citizens' personal private fantasy, but I do feel that the apparent obsession of Japanese men with fantasies (and worse) about underage girls (and rape) is unhealthy. And for those with an interest in animation as an art form, and Japanese anime in particular, it's long been a source of embarrassment and annoyance that so many films and TV series are fixated on looking up the skirts of little girls. It's gotten so that even more serious stories about girls such as the films of Hayao Miyazaki can't pass without raising a few eyebrows.

To change subjects entirely, debuting this week on Cartoon Network is an all-new series created by cartoonist and former REAL WORLD housemate Judd Winick. THE LIFE & TIMES OF JUNIPER LEE is about a super-powered 11-year-old girl is Earth's Protector against supernatural monsters. Looks mighty cute!

SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK

Unearthed gets in on the anime biz with this top grade restoration:

(O) ROCK & RULE (Unearthed) Long awaited restoration of a 1983 Canadian rock opera featuring performances by Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Blondie, Cheap Trick, and Earth Wind & Fire, and the voices of Paul LeMat and Catherine O'Hara. Includes commentrak, Making-Of and more. 2-disc collectors edition adds the original Canadian version, the short that inspired the film, featurettes, script and more.

NEW DVD RELEASES

Here's a rundown of the constant stream of anime comin' at ya on DVD from around the world:

(O) THE BEST OF TOKYO PIG (Buena Vista) The stories a superintelligent boy writes

in his diary come true, bringing him a magical pet swine. 
(O) BEYBLADE G REVELATION Volume 4: One For All... Free For All! (Funimation) The World Championships continue with a free-for-all in Egypt.
(O) CASE CLOSED: The Knight Baron Mystery (Funimation) Conan investigates.
(O) DNANGEL Volume 5: The Darkside of Love (ADV) Daisuke experiences seaside romance and gets cast in the school play as a girl! Includes commentraks, Making-Of featurettes and more.
(O) DRAGON BALL Z: Into the Wind (Funimation) Ultimate Uncut Edition.
(O) DRAGON BALL Z: Piccolo's Plan (Funimation) Ultimate Uncut Edition.
(O) E'S OTHERWISE Volume 3: Headspin (ADV) The Ashurum conglomerate develops a machine that can locate psychics and destroy their psi powers, and Kai is tricked into helping them with a test run. Then a training game turns siblings Shen-Lon and Shin-Lu against each other.
(O) FATHER OF THE PRIDE (DreamWorks) The press release says this NBC CGanime series was "widely lauded by critics and audiences alike". Do they know what "lauded" means? The behind-the-scenes lives of the white lions that perform in Siegfried & Roy's Vegas show, voiced by famous stars. When I saw that show, most of the animals were peeing all over the stage. I really felt sorry for the dancers who had to splash through it. The entire first (and only) season, including four unaired (wonder why?) episodes, commentraks, scripts, storyboards and more.
(O) GANTZ Volume 5: Process of Elimination (ADV) In Round 2, the players are provided with battlesuits and powerful weapons to battle another wave of alien killers.
(O) INU YASHA Volume 30: Monkey Business (Viz) Inuyasha agrees to help a village plagued by monkeys. But what do the monkeys really want?
(O) JUNGLE GIRL AND THE LOST ISLAND OF DINOSAURS (Koch) A shipwrecked girl's adventures on a prehistoric island.
(O) MADLAX Volume 2: The Red Book (ADV) Madlax is pulled into the middle of a civil war.
(O) MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO: THE MOVIE (ADV) Two years after the series, the crew of the new Nadesico heads off to fight a militant rebel army.
(O) MARY-KATE & ASHLEY IN ACTION Volume 1 (Warner Bros.) The Olsen twins provide the voices of Special Agents Misty & Amber, fighting bad guys around the globe.
(O) PETITE PRINCESS YUCIE Volume 5: Echoes from the Past (ADV) Yucie comes one step closer to the Platinum Princess Concert. Oooh!
(O) PROJECT ARMS 2nd CHAPTER Volume 5: Through the Looking Glass (Viz) Takeshi's in a coma, leaving it to Ryo, Hayato and Kei to infiltrate Karion Fortress to stop Alice's reign of terror.
(O) QUADS!: Freak Parade (Funimation) Canadian series by quadriplegic cartoonist John Callahan about a recently paralyzed man's misadventures with his new handicapped friends.
(O) SAIYUKI DOUBLE BARREL COLLECTION 3 (ADV) Sanzo leads his party deeper into the west, and demon-plagued territories.
(O) SPIDER-MAN: The Venom Saga (Buena Vista) Stan Lee provides vacuous introductions to this story arc.
(O) TENJHO TENGE Round 1 (Geneon) Now available in collectors box with jigsaw puzzle and pencil board.
(O) URUSEI YATSURA TV Volume 26 (AnimEigo)
(O) URUSEI YATSURA TV Volume 27 (AnimEigo)
(O) URUSEI YATSURA OVA Volume 3 (AnimEigo)

And be sure to check back next weekand every weekfor CINESCAPE's Anime Avalanche! And check in every Tuesday for the latest DVD Shopping List!

Anime Avalanche (© 2005 Brian Thomas) is our weekly animation column. Brian Thomas is the author of the massive book VideoHound's DRAGON: ASIAN ACTION & CULT FLICKS, available now!

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at DVDShoppingList@cinescape.com.