D

D-1 Devastator

1992. Video. dir: Tetsu Isami. scr: Masashi Sogo. des: Nasatomi, Masami Obari, Yukiji Kaoru. ani: Masaki Taihei. mus: N/C. prd: Dynamic. 50 mins.

A manga serialized in Ascii Comics by “Sphios Lab” and Toshi Yoshida provided the basis for this one-shot anime, in which Ryu, a young boy, must pilot the titular Devastator to defend the planet from the invading Varsus warriors.

D3 Series *

2001. Movie. dir: Shigenori Kumai, Takashi Kondo, Yuji Moriyama, Hotaru Kawakami et al. scr: Tamiyo Mori, Runa Kozuki. des: Akinori Kano, Konomi Noguchi. ani: Sakurako Kurai. mus: N/C. prd: D3. 30 mins. x 2 eps. (Collector), 30 mins. x 2 eps. (Concerto), 30 mins. x 7 eps. (Ninja), 30 mins. (Be Lifesized), 25 mins. x 4 eps. (Yosho), N/A (Family System), N/A (Love Doll), 30 mins. x 6 eps. (Discipline), 30 mins. x 3 eps. (Yakin Byoto 2), 30 mins. x 5 eps. (Discode), 10 mins. x 3 eps. (Inbo), 10 mins. x 3 eps. (Inko), 30 mins. (Let’s Do It With Sister).

Incorporating the White Bear label, D3 is another Japanese production company specializing in erotica. Its titles have not been so quick to make it to the American market. The first release, Collector (2001), presented three stories in an anthology—Shadow Jail: Sex Comfort Slaves (Inro Aiido), Desire to Touch (Shuyoku), and Red Snow (Akai Yuki), this last perhaps a reference to the first of the Lolita Anime. Later releases have capitalized on the trend for self-referentiality within fandom, such as Concerto (2001, Shirabe Concerto), which combines an adaptation of a best-selling game with a string of excuses for dressing up and role-playing. The story is presented as a series of rehearsals, auditions, and performances in the style of Mask of Glass, in which three pretty young actresses are obliged to don costumes and perform sex acts as part of their “training.” The costumes, however, are designed to evoke well-known characters from mainstream shows, in the same risqué fashion employed in the earlier Elven Bride. Similar fan-oriented high jinks arrived in Be Lifesized My Lover (2001, Toshindai My Lovers: Minami vs. Mecha Minami), a pastiche of the warrior-girlfriend tales of Mahoromatic and Saikano, in which a lonely, downtrodden boy suddenly gains a feisty roommate who defends the world from danger, whose sister enjoys dressing up (once again) in costumes, and both of whom enjoy S/M roleplay. The Japanese press release assures us that it is “full of swinging tits.” The company’s most successful franchise, however, has been Ninja (also 2001), the erotic tale that mixes both martial and marital arts—though only the first episode is credited to “D3,” while later installments were produced by Onmitsu-do/Obtain. The same period also saw the Yosho (Phantom Whispers) series, released in the American market as Midnight Strike Force, in which a secret cult of lesbian nurses hopes to bring about the resurrection of their satanic founder through experiments at a Tokyo hospital.

D3’s sales pitches mix true anime and DVD games with impunity, the company’s next releases being two interactive erotica, which took the plotlines of text-based games and added animated inserts. In the first, Family System (2002, Ryojoku: Kazoku System), a nameless man is hired to play a role in a fake family, and told he can do anything he likes except murder. He is placed in a series of situations in which he is made to interact with his fake family and, in a nod to the past-oriented setups of modern romance, a series of fake “childhood friends.” He soon forgets that he is living a lie, thereby ensuring that the inappropriate feelings he develops for the girl playing his sister are tinged with thoughts of incest, in a story that seems partly inspired by The Truman Show (1998) and the Japanese live-action TV series Transparent (*DE). The second, Love Doll (Ai Doll, 2002), has a title that might also be translated as Slave to Love, and is described by company press documents as a “pure love rape simulation game.”

After the success of Bible Black (not a D3 anime), D3 picked up the rights to release an anime adaptation of Discipline: Record of a Crusade, a 2002 release from the same company, Active Soft. The anime version, just plain Discipline (2004) is another of D3’s domestic successes, as demonstrated by its much longer episode count. In it, Japanese teenager Takuro Hayami cannot believe his luck when he is transferred to Saint Arcadia School, and finds his dorm is full of nubile coeds. He soon develops a crush on the house mistress Saori Otokawa (compare to Maison Ikkoku), although the other girls, particularly the evil Morimoto sisters, have realized that Hayami possesses a secret “sex power”—as in Masquerade, they want this energy for themselves and getting it will require a number of sex scenes. Younger sister Reona Morimoto and her associates at the Social Club begin a concerted effort to seduce Hayami, hoping to monopolize his sexual attentions. However, other factions at the school want Hayami for themselves, leading in later episodes to approaches from the Tennis Club and Swimming Club. Deciding to use blackmail to ensure Hayami’s availability, the Morimoto sisters kidnap and abuse Miss Otokawa. Before long, the girls are busily abusing and molesting each other in a series of bondage-based power games, the humiliations and retributions of schoolgirl one-upmanship, refashioned here for pornographic purposes. With Reona clamped into a chastity belt, an order is issued that there shall be no sex permitted in the school—a directive that is flouted with predictable speed, in a series of sex-based battles in which young ladies gamely struggle not to enjoy themselves. The final episodes lift traditions not from European school-days stories such as Twins at St. Clare’s, but instead from Japanese conspiracy theory school dramas such as the live-action School in Peril (*DE), revealing that the school’s sinister culture of rape and revenge is actually part of a secret project (compare to Bible Black), and one that, it appears, can only be thwarted by a mass orgy.

The D3 company also tried to muscle in on the success of another computer game franchise, Night Shift Nurses in the rival Discovery Series. In a really, really desperate attempt to avoid getting confused, we have called this off-shoot series by its Japanese title, Yakin Byoto 2 (2004), as distinguished from the NSN title used for the Discovery incarnation. In it, the renowned Doctor Kuwabara finds himself unable to forget his earlier love for nurse Ren Nanase. Kuwabara tracks her from town to town until he finally finds her. However, in the intervening time, she has become the subject of sexual experiments by an evil researcher at Saint Juliana’s hospital. Disappointed at the change in her previously virginal character, Kuwabara decides to avenge his hurt feelings on the human race at large by abusing and raping a number of nurses. The same year saw Discode: Abnormal Eros (Discode: Ijo Seiai) in which attractive girl Futaba turns out to have a penis as well. Using terms that parody the “girl with a boy’s heart” of Princess Knight, Discode posits a schoolgirl drama not unlike that of Discipline, in which a lone “male” figure finds himself surrounded by adoring girls. Futaba, however, must continually evade discovery, leading to a series of setups in which s/he must buy the silence of certain girls by having sex with them—a far cry from the cross-dressing and gender switching of El Hazard and Ranma 1/2, also based on an erotic computer game. Later episodes find Futaba assaulted by boys, in a rare introduction of the tropes of gay pornography into what is purportedly a “straight” series.

The D3 company tried a new and interesting direction with Lustful Mother (2005, Inbo) and Lustful Sister (2005, Inko). Featuring the seduction of teenage Masaru by an older woman, and the trials of Masaru’s would-be girlfriend as she enjoys a sexual relationship with the manager of the restaurant where she used to work, the twin serials notably shared cast members, making a virtue out of the limited setups of pornography by, for example, using protagonist Masaru for tales both of his seduction by older women and of high school romance. While, in essence, the show merely runs picaresque encounters in parallel instead of in series, its dual title release represents an intriguing marketing decision. The year was rounded off with the release of Let’s Do It with Sister, for which see its separate entry. The company’s first release of 2006 was the self-explanatory Cleavage. LNV

D4 Princess

1999. TV series. dir: Yasunori Ide. scr: Yasunori Ide. des: Shinji Ochi. ani: Ta­tsuo Iwata. mus: Kenji Kawai. prd: Canyon, Domu, WOWOW. 10 mins. x 24 eps.

Based on Shotaro Harada’s manga, serialized in Dengeki Daio, in which princess Doris Rurido turns up at a school famed for its fighting “Panzer League” and soon becomes its leader through the use of the transforming drill on her arm. The original short episodes, screened as part of the satellite channel WOWOW’s Anime Complex II anthology show, were eventually compiled into four videos for retail release.

D.I.C.E. *

2004. jpn: Dinobreaker. aka: DNA Integrated Cybernetic Enterprises. TV series. dir: Jun Kamiya. scr: Hiro Masaki, Jun Kamiya, Kenichi Yamada, Kenichi Araki, Masahiko Shiraishi, Ryu Tamura, Yoshio Kato. des: Mitsuru Ishihara, Tsuyoshi Nonaka. ani: Jun Takahashi, Naoyoshi Kusaka, Shin Katagai. mus: Masato Miyazawa. prd: Bandai, Xebec. 25 mins. x 26 eps.

Jet Siegel is the predictably “hot-headed” pilot of the Motoraptor, one of more than half a dozen vehicles that form part of the F-99 platoon of DNA Integrated Cybernetic Enterprises, a quasi-military organization that polices criminal activity in the Sarbylion galaxy. D.I.C.E. F-99 is the only group staffed wholly by children, who relish the chance to ride in their Dinobraker vehicles, which, as if you hadn’t guessed, can transform into a robotic dinosaur mode like Zoids. A series of menaces of the week soon ensues, from planets at risk of explosion to attacks by space pirates led by the mysterious Shadow Knight—whose true identity will not come as the remotest surprise to anyone who has seen Speed Racer. Later episodes introduce a darker subplot in which corrupt higher officials are found to be planning an escape to the forbidden planet of Heron, where they hope to find the secret of eternal life. Jet and friends oppose them, only to find themselves branded as traitors and forced to take on the amassed forces of their former allies, in the style of Dancougar. Despite looking to all intents and purposes like yet another anime series, D.I.C.E. was actually the first co-production to be initiated by Bandai America with the American audience in mind—the show premiered on U.S. TV before it was seen in Japan.

Da Capo

2003. jpn: D.C.—Da Capo. TV series. dir: Nagisa Miyazaki, Shinji Takago. scr: Katsumi Hasegawa, Katsumi Te-
rato, Kenichiro Katsura, Mamiko Ikeda, Masaharu Amiya, Masashi Suzuki, Nagisa Miyazaki, Yuji Moriyama. des: Shinobu Tagashira, Naru Nanao. ani: N/C. mus: Hikaru Nanase, Yugo Sugano. prd: Circus, Feel, Zecx, Chiba TV, TV Kanagawa. 24 mins. x 26 eps. (TV1), 24 mins. x 26 eps. (TV2).

Junichi Asakura lives with his stepsister Nemu on the magical, crescent-shaped island of Hatsune, where the cherry trees are in bloom all year around. Like many on Hatsune, Junichi has limited magical powers—in his case, he can conjure candy out of thin air and see the dreams of others. But there are also more mundane concerns—on the night before he begins his senior year at Hatsune’s high school, Junichi dreams that a girl under a cherry tree announces that she is his returning sister. The same girl arrives as a transfer student the following day, and he recognizes her as his cousin, Sakura, back after six years in America looking exactly the same as when she left, and, in the eyes of some of the other girls in Junichi’s class, a little overfamiliar toward him.

Based on a PS2 game with a manga out the same year, DC is yet another cookie-cutter tale of a teenage guy who’s just irresistible to girls, living in a Maison Ikkoku group of people with various strange talents and quirks, falling into absurd and improbable romantic situations complicated by Love Hina promises made in childhood, attracting women wherever he goes. However, it also imparts a fairy-tale quality to the elegiac nature of many high school dramas. School days are often presented as a wondrous dreamtime in anime, though it is difficult to tell whether this is a cynical exercise or a heartfelt belief on the part of animators—see Mahoromatic. DC certainly works hard to imbue the end of childhood with literal magic: in an echo of Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro, the students’ sense of magic wanes as they age, as do the blossoms on the supposedly eternal cherry trees.

DC Second Season, based in part on the second PS2 game DC Plus Communication, picks up two years later, when Hatsune Island’s cherry trees have lost their magical properties and merely bloom each spring. Junichi gains a new love interest when young Aisia arrives hoping to learn magic from his grandmother. When he reveals that his grandmother is dead, she mistakenly believes that he can teach her but soon realizes her mistake, although she stays around in order to determine what has gone wrong with the trees.

Daa! Daa! Daa!

2000. TV series. dir: Hiroaki Sakurai. scr: Tomoko Konparu, Shingo Arakawa. des: Masayuki Onchi. ani: Ryoichi Oki. mus: Toshio Masuda. prd: JC Staff, NHK2. 25 mins. x 78 eps.

When her mother qualifies as an astronaut and must travel abroad with her scientist father, Miu is sent to live with her uncle in an old temple. Forced to share a dwelling with her handsome classmate Kanata, Miu’s embarrassment is compounded when the “couple” is “adopted” by an alien baby, Ru. The reluctant foster parents must cope with a baby who can levitate and with the additional annoyance of their child’s alien protector, Wannya.

Based on Mika Kawamura’s manga in Nakayoshi magazine, this comedy combines the odd-couple romance of His and Her Circumstances with an SF excuse for playing mommies and daddies straight out of Mama’s A Fourth Grader.

Daddy Long-Legs

1979. jpn: Ashinaga Ojisan. TV special. dir: Masakazu Higuchi. scr: Akira Miyazaki. des: Shinichi Tsuji. ani: Shinichi Tsuji. mus: Makoto Kawaguchi. prd: Herald Enterprise, Tatsunoko Pro, Fuji TV. 75 mins. (TVm), 25 mins. x 40 eps. (TV).

When she turns 18, the stories Judy Abbot publishes about her life in the orphanage secure her a place at university. She writes many letters to her mysterious benefactor “Daddy Long-Legs” unaware that he is Jervis Pendleton III, an adoring millionaire who has already met her (and fallen in love with her) in disguise. This musical one-shot anime is only the most recent adaptation of Jean Webster’s 1912 children’s book—Hollywood movies of the same story include one with Mary Pickford as Judy (1919), Janet Gaynor taking the role in 1931, and a 1955 version with Leslie Caron and Fred Astaire. There is also a Dutch adaptation, Vadertje Langbeen (1938), but this inversion of Cinderella, in which an unusual girl seeks a “normal life” (with a millionaire, of course), was also immensely influential in Japan’s girls’ manga market, where it inspired Candy Candy and its many imitators. The story was remade by Kazuyoshi Yokota as a World Masterpiece Theater anime TV series, My Daddy Long-Legs (1990, Watashi no Ashinaga Ojisan), featuring new character designs by Shuichi Seki. Also see Video Picture Book.

Dagger of Kamui *

1985. jpn: Kamui no Ken. aka: Blade of Kamui. Movie. dir: Rintaro, Susumu Ishizaki. scr: Mori Masaki. des: Murano Moriyoshi. ani: Atsuo Noda, Kyoko Matsuhara, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Koji Morimoto, Osamu Nabeshima, Yasuomi Umezu. mus: Ryudo Uzaki, Ei­tetsu Hayashi. prd: Algos, Madhouse. 132 mins.

Jiro, a foundling boy, loses his adoptive parents to an assassin. Avenging their death by murdering a one-armed man, he falls in with the priest Tenkai, who trains him in the black arts of the ninja. Learning that the one-armed man was really his true father, a distraught Kamui searches for his true mother, an Ainu princess. He also goes in search of Captain Kidd’s treasure in order to take from Tenkai the only thing that he values. Tenkai wishes to use the treas­ure to overthrow the antiisolationists and close Japan once more to the outside world—the action takes place just before the Meiji Restoration that would throw Japan open once and for all. Jiro’s quest takes him all the way to the American West, with time out for a brief meeting with Tom Sawyer–creator Mark Twain, where he is saved by a defecting servant of Tenkai’s (who turns out to be his long-lost sister) before returning to exact revenge for all his family.

This Kamui is no relation to Sanpei Shirato’s Manual of Ninja Martial Arts; it was based on a series of novels by Legend of the Paper Spaceship–author Tetsu Yano, who was also Robert Heinlein’s Japanese translator. Though not one of his best works, Dagger of Kamui contains much of the clash of old and new that distinguishes his writings—the idea of foreign assistance in sending Japan back into the past would be reused by animator Kawajiri in Ninja Scroll. Blade of Kamui, an earlier U.S. dub of the movie, rewrites the plot completely, claiming that it is set on an alien world, where Kamui’s dagger is a “powerful weapon [that] controls the future of the universe.” NV

Dagon

1988. jpn: Ikinari Dagon. TV series. dir: Kazuyoshi Yokota. scr: Nobuyuki Fujimoto. des: Noboru Takano. ani: Te­tsuya Ishikawa. mus: Kazunori Ishida. prd: Nippon Animation, TV Asahi. 25 mins. x 12 eps.

Dagon is the pilot of the starship Digital whose daughter, Meryl, is always getting into trouble. In the middle of an investigation, a shipboard accident causes the Digital to crash-land on a planet ruled by a race of giants called the Sapiens (i.e., Earth). Dagon and his crew, however, are helped by the bee doctor Marilyn, Jisamu the cockroach, Floppy the spider, and Skipper the ant. They return the favor by saving Marilyn from Geppo the evil frog. This short-lived anime recalls the Fleischer brothers’ Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941, aka Hoppity Goes to Town) and features the contribution of non-Japanese creators Dennis Bond and Ken Morton.

Daiakuji: Xena Buster *

2003. Video. dir: Makoto Sokuza. scr: Yoshio Takao. des: Masashi Kojima. ani: Masashi Kojima. mus: N/C. prd: Alice Soft, Green Bunny. 20 mins. (SD prequel), 30 mins. x 6 eps.

The male-dominated land of Japan is conquered by the feminist-oriented nation of Wimy, which has crushed its enemies in a devastating war. Former prisoner of war Akuji Yamamoto returns to his native Osaka to find that his local management association is now run by his grandfather Ippatsu’s mistress, who kicks him out. The battered Akuji is found and nursed back to health by Yoko Aoba, a representative of a neighboring group. Once back at his full strength, Akuji decides to recover his birthright and teach the feminists a lesson, by raping his way back to control of the family business. Intrigues, assassinations, and political deals follow, but mainly rapes. The series was also preceded by a 20-minute super-deformed prequel, Zengi no Susume (2003). LNV

Daichi, Akitaro

1956– . After graduating from the Tokyo School of Photography in 1978, he worked as an animator on the Doraemon movie Nobita the Space Colonist (1981), before taking a position with the Jam Company as a director of live-action commercials and corporate videos. He later joined EG Films as an animator, and then went freelance as a director. His works include Now and Then, Here and There (1999), Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl (1999), and Fruits Basket (2001).

Daichis, the *

2001. jpn: Chikyu Boei Kazoku. TV series. dir: Satoshi Kimura. scr: Shoji Kawamori. des: Kazuaki Mori. ani: Kazuaki Mori. mus: Shigeo Naka. prd: Tac, WOWOW. 25 mins. x 13 eps.

Troubled family man Mamori Daichi is on the verge of divorce when he and his wife are disturbed mid-argument by a mysterious fax commanding them to protect planet Earth. Soon afterward, a giant comet smashes into Earth, releasing a space monster that only Mamori can stop. He, his wife, Seiko, and their children, Dai and Nozomi, discover that when they insert their special magic cards into a computer, they are teleported into superpowered battle suits, complete with user manuals on how to save Earth. An Ultraman pastiche from Shoji Kawamori, best known in recent years for his work on Macross and Escaflowne, deliberately using “old-fashioned” techniques of cel animation in contrast to the contemporary fashion for digital animation and effects.

Daiguard *

1999. jpn: Chikyu Boetai Kigyo Daiguard. aka: Earth Defense Enterprise Daiguard. TV series. dir: Seiji Mizushima. scr: Hidefumi Kimura. des: Hiroyuki Kanno. ani: Michiru Ishihara. mus: Kohei Tanaka, Kenji Kawai. prd: Sotsu, Xebec, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 26 eps.

In a.d. 2030, 12 years after the extra-dimensional Heterodyne invasion was repelled by the people of Earth, the planet has settled into a time of relative peace. The chief weapon against them, the giant robot known as Daiguard, is now performing police PR duties in Japan with a new pilot—the hot-headed 25-year-old Shunsuke Akagi. But during one of Daiguard’s routine publicity appearances, the Heterodyne strike again, and the old war horse is brought back into service without a moment to lose. Director Mizushima later confessed to Newtype that the show went into production with “almost no prep time,” much to its detriment.

Daigunder *

2002. jpn: Bakuto Sengen Daigandar. aka: Explosive Declaration Daigandar. TV series. dir: Hiroyuki Yano. scr: N/C. des: Kou Abe. ani: Brains Base. mus: Yasunori Iwasaki. prd: NAS, TV Tokyo, Nippon Animation, Aeon. 25 mins. x 39 eps.

Battle Robot is a new sport in which robots fight each other—they call it “new,” but to us it looks uncannily like the previous year’s Crush Gear Turbo. Akira Akebono is a Commander, or Battle Robot pilot and team leader, and wants to get to the top of his sport. When the Battle Robot League gives his team a chance to compete, his grandfather Professor Hajime builds the mighty robot Daigunder. However, evil genius Big Bang is out to steal the secrets of Team Akira, whose allies include Bu-Lion, Eagle Arrow, Drimog (a mole-based robot), and three dinosaur-themed machines, Bone Rex, Despector (a pterodactyl), and Tri-Horn. This cheerful show for younger children made it onto both Animax-Asia and America’s ABC Family Channel in 2003. Yes, yet another one squirted out the production-line sausage machine and into your children’s brains.

Daimaho Crest

2006. jpn: Daimaho Toge. aka: Great Magic Crest. Video. dir: Tsutomu Mizushima. scr: Tsutomu Mizushima. des: Satoshi Isono. ani: N/C. mus: N/S. prd: Studio Barcelona. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

Princess Punie is a beautiful, magical girl of royal birth, sent to live among humans for a year as part of her training for taking the throne of her homeworld. Despite a setup redolent of innumerable “magical girl” shows, this video series takes off in a somewhat unexpected direction, as Punie has a sadistic streak and enjoys besting her schoolgirl rivals in a magical variant of wrestling holds.

Daitarn 3

1977. jpn: Muteki Kojin Daitarn 3. aka: Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3. TV series. dir: Yoshiyuki Tomino, Shinya Sadamitsu, Shigeru Kato. scr: Yoshihisa Araki, Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, Soji Yoshikawa. des: Norio Shioyama, Kazuyoshi Koguni (pseud. for Tomonori Kogawa). ani: Kazuo Nakamura, Kazuo Yamazaki, Kazuo Tomizawa. mus: Takeo Watanabe. prd: Nippon Sunrise, Nagoya TV (TV Asahi). 25 mins. x 40 eps.

“For the world, for the people…!” A powerful artificial intelligence called Don Zaucker is created in the human colony on Mars. Created by Professor Haran and intended to help mankind, Zaucker turns evil, kills its creator, and transforms all the humans on the base into Meganoids, powerful cyborgs led by its aide Koros, a redheaded cyborg lady who is the only being able to communicate with Zaucker. The cyborgs can merge to become Megaborg, a huge machine entity. As Meganoid society evolves, with different grades and types of cyborg, Koros plans to spread the Meganoid Empire to Earth; but she reckons without Professor Haran’s son Banjo and the mighty transforming robot Daitarn 3. Helped by the family’s resourceful butler Garrison Tokida, battling babes Reika Sanjo and Beauty Tachibana, and with streetwise orphan Toppi as his sidekick, Banjo must stop the Meganoids before they take over the Earth. They have a futuristic base in a beautiful villa, and lots of high-tech toys, led by Banjo’s supercar the Match Patrol, which can transform from dream ride to combat aircraft.

Reuniting many staff from Zambot 3 to replicate the spy thrillers of the 1960s (most obviously James Bond, but also Batman), this series from the future creator of Gundam advanced far beyond the staid monsters-of-the-week of its initial premise—in fact, even these were originals, featuring cameo designs from many big names. The show is also notable for its foreshadowing of the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and for being the first giant robot since Astro Ganger to have changing facial expressions. The characters have more to offer than the cookie cutter usually allows, and the show is pervaded by their humor and camaraderie. Garrison, the group’s father figure, is an enigmatic and fascinating man in his own right, Toppi is less annoying than most audience identification points, and the girls are both tough and powerful allies. Reika is ex-Interpol; her partner Toda killed by the invading Meganoids. Beauty wants more from life than simply being the darling of a rich father and has taken a job as Banjo’s assistant before the show starts. Her vital statistics are revealed in episode 6 as 37-23-36 inches, indicating an interest from a slightly older audience than the norm for a giant robot show; perhaps, like Dr. Who’s Leela, she persuaded fathers to watch with their sons.

Koros sends the Meganoids to Earth to take over the planet by assimilating each human into their collective consciousness, but when our heroes make it impossible, Koros decides to crash Mars into Earth to wipe out all human life. Banjo and company head for Mars in Daitarn 3, and Banjo finally faces Koros in hand-to-hand combat in the palace of Don Zaucker. Just as Banjo is about to destroy Koros, Zaucker wakes from its cybernetic sleep, and we learn that it was Koros who started the drive for conquest of humanity. With the Meganoid Empire in ruins and mankind safe, the team can go home, and the end of the series is intensely melancholy, leading us through the departure of each team member, the shutting up of the villa, and Garrison, looking back down a tree-lined avenue in the rain toward the base from which so much excitement, laughter, and tragedy was launched, now empty and desolate. He stamps his foot and shouts the summoning spell, “One… two… three… Daitarn Three!” but the last shot shows the villa dark, empty, and still, except for a single lighted window, as the superb ending theme cuts in. Credited to Tomino and Sunrise’s house pseudonym Hajime Yadate, this is a fascinating minor work by a science fiction master whose main strength has always been making the robots as sexy as possible, then making the people matter more.

Dallos *

1983. Video. dir: Mamoru Oshii. scr: Hisayuki Toriumi, Mamoru Oshii. des: Toshiyasu Okada, Masaharu Sato. ani: Toshiyasu Okada, Takemi Tanemoto, Masahiro Neriki. mus: Hiroyuki Nanba. prd: Bandai, Yomiuri, Studio Pierrot. 30 mins. x 4 eps.

The grandchildren of the original lunar colonists, toughened by generations in the mines on the dark side of the moon, fight to gain their independence from an exhausted and oppressive Earth, as guerrilla leaders Shun and Dog oppose the ruthless Terran commandant Alex Riger’s group, complete with armed heavies and robot dogs.

This unremarkable rip-off of Robert Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress will go down in history for being the first anime made specifically for direct video release. The series, later released in a 120-minute feature-length edition, was cut down to form the 85-minute Dallos Special, which added 50 extra shots and was the only incarnation to be released in the U.S. Before we even get to the opening Star Wars–inspired crawl of expository scene-setting, there’s a lengthy narration over stills of concept art, a sure-fire sign (as in the much later Jin-Roh) that the makers mistakenly feared the audience would be bewildered. As with writer Toriumi’s later Salamander, the script is actually better than the crew seem to realize (much of the 5-minute voice-over seems to consist of his rather sensible production notes), but his writing is badly served by hackneyed setups and execution by staff members who had yet to realize that the video audience would be slightly older than the viewership for TV serials such as Gundam. The final conceit, in which an awestruck colonist gazes upon the distant Earth that spawned him, almost makes up for the cheap animation and lazy world-building that gives a lunar city a blue sky and Earth-normal gravity.

Dan Doh!! *

2004. TV series. dir: Hidetoshi Omori. scr: N/C. des: Hidetoshi Omori. ani:
N/C. mus: Yuko Shimomura. prd: HoriPro, TV Tokyo. 24 mins. x 26 eps.

High school rivalry, sporting enmities, family secrets and rifts abound in the story of a high school boy who quits baseball for golf, from the manga by by Nobuhiro Sakata and Daichi Banjo. Tadamichi “Dandoh” Aoba is the son of a former player who was banned from the golf world ten years ago. His mother has been missing for some time. He has an older sister, Kyoko, and a good friend in the pretty Yuka Sanada, who enters the Kumamoto Junior Golf Championship. Dandoh’s only been playing for three months but he enters the same competition, despite opposition and sabotage from Yuka’s classmate Yokota, who desires her and hates him. As the friends enter more competitions and Dandoh gets more and more into the game, he meets Tasaki, the man who got his father banned. Then he and Kyoko learn that their mother has been seen in Hokkaido, and a chance to caddy in a tournament on the island gives him a chance to look for her. No more ludicrous than any other sports anime—compare to Beat Shot and Progolfer Saru.

Dance Till Tomorrow

1990. jpn: Asatte Dance. aka: Dance the Day after Tomorrow. Video. dir: Teruo Kigure, Masamune Ochiai. scr: Sheila Nakajima, Tomohiro Maruyama. des: Jiro Sayama. ani: Jiro Sayama. mus: Tetsuya Nakamura. prd: Knack. 45 mins. x 2 eps.

Country boy Suekichi only has to graduate from his Tokyo college to inherit his late grandfather’s fortune. He’d rather be working in a deadbeat experimental theater troupe in the hope of getting into its earnest, pretty leading light’s good book, not to mention panties, but there are two major obstacles. One is that Granddad, not content with setting up a stony-faced lawyer to try and keep his descendant on the straight and narrow, materializes in Suekichi’s apartment at awkward moments to dispense totally useless advice. And the other is Aya Hibino (or is it Munakata?), a wild child with an attitude problem who keeps breaking into his apartment and forcing sex on him. She also forces reluctant tenderness, responsibility, and a realization that there’s more to adult life than he’ll ever find in his drama group, in this short-lived adaptation of Naoki Yamamoto’s seven­-volume 1989 manga from Big Comic Spirits. The same creator contributed to the Cream Lemon series under the pseudonym To Moriyama. A live-action movie version followed in 1991. N

Dancing with Dad

1999. jpn: Papa to Odoro. TV series. dir: Akira Yoshida. scr: Chuya Chikazawa. des: Masaaki Kawanami. ani: Hirohide Shikishima, Moriyasu Taniguchi. mus: N/C. prd: Studio Deen, TBS. 8 mins. x 13 eps.

A gag comedy depicting the everyday life of a lustful, lazy, and indecent father and his strait-laced son and daughter. Chuya Chikazawa’s 1991 comic from Young Magazine was adapted for short slots on the Wonderful show.

Dancougar *

1985. jpn: Choju Kishin Dancougar. aka: Super-Bestial Machine God Dancougar. TV series, movie, video. dir: Nobuyoshi Habara, Seiji Okuda. scr: Keisuke Fujikawa, Kenji Terada, Junji Takegami. des: Indori-Koya, Hisashi Hirai, Masami Obari. ani: Akira Saijo, Osamu Tsuruyama. mus: Takeshi Ike, Osamu Totsuka. prd: Ashi Pro, TBS. 25 mins. x 38 eps. (TV), ca. 90 mins. x 2 (v), 30 mins. x 4 eps. (v).

Earthman Shapiro Keats betrays his own race and switches his allegiance to the space emperor Muge Zolbados. Earth’s last hope is the Dancougar team, which harnesses the power of Terran beasts to fight with its combining giant robot. Carefully repeating the formula established by Battle of the Planets and director Okuda’s earlier Gobarian, Dancougar features leader Shinobu (pilot of the Eagle Fighter), love interest Sarah and her Land Cougar, youngster Masato in the Land Liger, and big-guy Ryo, pilot of the Mammoth. Battles rage across the Amazon Basin, New York, and Europe before a final showdown between Sarah and Shapiro in the asteroid belt.

As the series closed, 60 minutes of recycled footage was augmented with 30 new minutes to make the Requiem for Lost Heroes video. Toshitaro Oba’s all-new God Bless Dancougar was the best-selling anime video of 1987 (released in the U.K. as plain Dancougar), foreshadowing Patlabor 2 with its postseries look at the team training new recruits. Framed by a military cartel, they are imprisoned but rescued by their students and a short-lived suicide squad of black knights (who also appeared in episode 26 of the TV series). The usual robot action is punctuated by completely incongruous musical interludes (Shinobu wants to be a pop star), perhaps recycled footage from the 1985 Songs from the Beast Machine Team video special.

The team’s last appearance was in the four-part 1989 video series White Hot Final Chapter, when they are dragged out of retirement to resist a new threat from planet Delado, with Shapiro pulling strings from behind the scenes.

Dangaioh *

1987. jpn: Hajataisei Dangaio, Hajakyosei G Dangaioh. aka: Star Destroyer Bullet-Criminal-Investigation-Phoenix, Hajyataisei Great Dangaioh. Video. dir: Toshihiro Hirano. scr: Sho Aikawa. des: Shoji Kawamori, Masami Obari, Koichi Ohata. ani: Hideaki Anno. mus: Michiaki Watanabe. prd: AIC. 45 mins. x 3 eps.

Four kids (Mia, Pai, Lamda, and token male Roll) are abducted and brainwashed by the kindly (!) Professor Tarsan and trained to become warriors in the fight against the pirate Galimos. They later discover that their planets were destroyed by the invaders (who keep their armor on indoors so the animators don’t have to move their lips) and that the kids’ powers are the last thing that prevents the end of the universe.

The 1980s anime industry, still taking tottering steps into the world of straight-to-video science fiction, had a lot of trouble working out what to give its audience. Boys who had grown up watching kiddie shows that featured giant transforming robots were now grown-up twentysomethings with VCRs, and this was one of the many experiments aimed at bringing them back. But the amnesia subplot is a lame excuse for long exposition scenes and huge holes in the plot, and it contains many of the flaws of children’s shows without exploiting their appeal. The end result is a show that imitates the big-robot fights (originally designed to sell toys) and halfheartedly includes a psychic-weapon subplot influenced by Akira. Ultimately too childish for an adult audience and too complex for kids, Dangaioh is an also-ran in Japanese sci-fi.

Originally sold as Dangaio (sic) in a subtitled edition in the U.S., the first episode was dropped from Manga Entertainment’s compilation dub, which added the final “h.” The dub is the usual shrill mess that characterizes translations of the period; listen for the telltale “bloodies” and occasional asides like Pai’s darts slang (“One hundred and eighty!”) that mark this as a British dub made with American accents to secure U.S. distribution.

Note also the careful balancing of the sexes. Producer Toru Miura realized early on that a primarily male audience would prefer to watch a lone boy amid a gaggle of gorgeous girls rather than a load of sweaty men in spacesuits. Miura went on to perfect this eye-candy formula in the hugely popular Tenchi Muyo!

The video series was remade for television as the 13-episode G Dangaio (2001), which begins with Miya Alice crash-landing on Earth in the 1980s and sending a telepathic message to teenager Miya Shikitani that warns her of the approach of Banger Invaders. The Terran Miya starts developing a Dangaioh unit to defend Earth, and ten years later they are ready to defend the planet with the aid of the combining Dangaioh Burst, Dangaioh Flail, and Dangaioh Cross, piloted by angst-ridden teens Takaya Tenjo, Manami Umishio, and Hitomi Jido. G Dangaioh ends without actually concluding the plot; there is an indication that a second series was intended, but it has not materialized as this book goes to press.

Dangaizer Three

1999. jpn: Choshin-hime Dangaizer Three. aka: Super-Divine Princess Dangaizer Three. Video. dir: Masami Obari. scr: Masami Obari, Reimu Aoki. des: Yasuhiro Oshima, Natsuki Mamiya, Masami Obari. ani: Masami Obari. mus: N/C. prd: Kaos Project. 30 mins. x 4 eps.

The arrival of a giant crystal causes havoc in the future city of Neo Hong Kong, sucking the pretty martial artist and games fan Hina Mitsurugi into an alternate world. There, she finds the four kings of this parallel Earth facing destruction at the hands of the evil Sapphire and teams up with big-sister figure Sindy Shahana on a quest for some of the mythical Protect Gear.

Directed, scripted, designed, and animated by Virus’s Obari, with plenty of fan-service cleavage to make up for the absent characterization. N

Dangard Ace *

1977. jpn: Wakusei Robo Dangard A. aka: Planetary Robot Danguard Ace. TV series. dir: Tomoharu Katsumata. scr: Haruya Yamazaki, Soji Yoshikawa. des: Shingo Araki. ani: Shingo Araki, Akira Saijo. mus: Shunsuke Kikuchi. prd: Toei, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 56 eps.

Dr. Oedo organizes a scouting mission, led by the elite young pilot Takuma (Winstar), to the rogue tenth planet Prometheus as it nears Earth. Approaching the planet in the superfast carrier Jasdam, the crew rescues Captain Dan (Captain Mask), who has escaped from the evil Commissar Krell. The captain assumes duties with the Dangard A robot team, ready to put them through the toughest training in order to save Earth from invasion. Based on an idea by Starblazers’ Leiji Matsumoto (reputedly in answer to the giant-robot shows made by his fellow big name manga artists, Go Nagai and Shotaro Ishinomori) and Dan Kobayashi (who appears to have lent his own name to the show and to the heroic Captain Dan), 26 episodes of this series were shown in the U.S. as part of the Force Five anime compilation, and the first 2 episodes were rerereleased on video to capitalize on the new boom in anime. The characters also appeared in an episode made specifically for theatrical release in Japan called Dangard A: Great War in Space (1978). The series was reissued in an LD collection under the umbrella title of Leiji Matsumoto Theater.

Daphne in the Brilliant Blue *

2004. jpn: Hikari to Mizu no Daphne. aka: Daphne of Light and Water. TV series. dir: Ryuji Ikehata. scr: Kiyoshi Minakami, Yasunori Yamada, Kurasumi Sunayama. des: Kazunori Iwakura, Satoshi Shiki, Shingo Takeba. ani: Yumi Nakayama. mus: Ko Otani. prd: Toshiba, Happinet, JC Staff, Genco. 24 mins. x 24 eps.

Global warming has caused flooding worldwide and many countries have simply vanished underwater; a premise familiar from Patlabor and Blue Submarine No. Six, but employed here for reasons that seem to have more to do with the falling costs of CG water-modeling (compare to Aria) and the handy excuse for having lots of characters wearing tight swimwear. Gifted student Maia Mizuki fails in the application exam for the top-flight quasi-governmental organization known as the Oceanographic Agency, but is rescued from a robber by Rena and Shizuka, two employees of a multifunctional service corporation known as NEREIS.They’ve been engaged to catch the robber and blackmail the destitute Maia into acting as bait. She fills time before her next exam by working as a troubleshooter for NEREIS, in a series of setups that are enough to make Agent Aika seem demure. Maia’s supposed brains are at odds with her pliant attitude; paid a pittance and constantly picked on by Rena and Shizuka, she stays with NEREIS through such thrilling operations as finding a stolen car, helping a salaryman save face with his daughter, and looking after an abandoned baby. Then she goes on a quest to find her lost memories, which have not previously been mentioned but revolve round her father’s female bodyguard and her late grandfather, whose dying word was “Daphne.” This involves a Mafia subplot, her being kidnapped by the Oceanographic Agency—apparently they want her for a purpose too sinister to just give her a job—and a visit to a ruined city where she uncovers their secret plot and her own past. Created by NeSKeS, whose choice of pen name confirms a fondness for the pointlessly cryptic. A manga also appeared in Young King Ours magazine.

Darcrows *

2003. Video. dir: Jun Fukuda. scr: Jiro Muramtasu. des: Hideki Araki. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Alice Soft, Shura. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

Six months after the kingdom of Leben mounts a surprise attack on its peaceful neighbor Carnea, the king of the oppressed kingdom dies from an illness. Claude, a former knight of Carnea, returns to his homeland after eight years in exile and claims to have a plan to save the land. He suggests hiring mercenaries to beat back the Leben invaders, and to get the money for it by sponsoring the princesses and ladies of the kingdom as prostitutes. Based on a game by Alice Soft. LNV

Dark Cat *

1991. Video. dir: Akira Suzuki. scr: Toshiki Inoue. des: Masami Suda. ani: Hirohide Shikishima. mus: N/C. prd: Nikkatsu. 60 mins.

Human beings carry a seed of evil within them that demonic creatures wish to nurture and exploit. Other paranormal beings, the “dark cats,” seek to protect humanity from its own heritage. Two such feline angels are Hyoi and Ryoi, who are spying on strange events in a Japanese school. Hyoi has transmuted into human form, while Ryoi has invited himself in cat form into the life of female student Aimi. As the evil spirit Jukokubo possesses the teachers and turns them to violence, Hyoi and Ryoi must protect their charges with the aid of their magical Dark Cat sword.

Based on a manga serialized in Halloween magazine by Naomi Kimura, Dark Cat crashes the pretty boys of girls’ manga such as Tokyo Babylon with the tits-and-tentacles ghostbusting of innumerable horror anime like Wicked City. NV

Dark Love *

2005. jpn: Kuro Ai Hitoya Tsumakan. aka: Dark Love Wife Mansion. Video. dir: Teruaki Murakami. scr: Osamu Momoi. des: Teruaki Murakami. ani: Te-
ruaki Murakami. mus: N/C. prd: Makukan, Green Bunny. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

When his childhood friend Ayaka Utsumi is in desperate need of an operation, kind-hearted Tetsuya Gojo travels to see his distant relative Rokuka Aragami, hoping to borrow the money required for the procedure. Aragami agrees, but only if Tetsuya promises to work at the country mansion, training kidnapped girls how to be prostitutes. Subplots ensue in which women fallen on hard times are convinced to pay off their debts with sexual servitude. Compare to Debts of Desire. Based on a game by Clockup. LNV

Dark Myth *

1990. jpn: Ankoku Shinwa. Video. dir: Takashi Anno. scr: Takashi Anno. des: Yoshiaki Yanagida. ani: Kazuo Kawauchi, Tomomi Mochizuki. mus: Kenji Kawai. prd: Asiado. 50 mins. x 2 eps.

Ten years ago, Takeshi’s father was murdered. The weeping boy was found by his side in the forest, nursing a strange shoulder wound. Takeshi suspects that the scar is a symbol of an ancient snake cult and teams up with some acquaintances to track down relics of the era. He discovers that ancient clans from Japanese prehistory are fighting to preserve their secrets in the present day. These secrets include the elixir of life, a great treasure, and a savage immortal hidden beneath a mountain.

Daijiro Moroboshi’s original one-volume 1976 Shonen Jump manga is tied into a much larger universe both of “real” myths and his personal revisions. He already treated a similar subject the previous year in Maddomen, in which a scholar discovered secrets of Japanese history at a lost New Guinea temple, and would return to it again with the linked story Confucius’s Dark Myth (1977) and a rewrite of the Monkey-King tale in Phantom Monkey’s Journey to the West (1983). The stories all take their cues from the fact that the supposedly homogenous Japanese are a melting pot of several different races, the earliest of which are only known from a handful of archaeological relics. The Jomon, Yamatai, Ainu, Chinese, Koreans, Manchurians, and Southeast Asians all brought elements of their own cultures to Japan. Compare this to Princess Mononoke, in which several of these cultures fight each other at the birth of Japan. Dark Myth suggests that before the coming of humans, an ancient race of Indian gods also fought over the land, and that today’s legends are fragmented race memories of this great war. Similar liberties are taken with history in many other anime from Psychic Wars to Yamato Takeru.

There is a clever economy of animation (especially a scene where Takeshi alone is animated in a whited-out world) and some suitably arcane music from Ghost in the Shell’s Kawai, but DM is ultimately disappointing. That place in Japanese history where real events elide into myth is truly fascinating. Even today, the emperor can supposedly trace his lineage back to Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess mentioned in DM, and the sorcerous Princess Himiko is the semihistorical figure mentioned in Chinese histories as the Queen of Wa, who appears in other guises in Zeguy, Flint the Time Detective, and Steel Jeeg. But much of the plot is a tour of Japanese antiquities, and while director Anno turns up the tension with waving grasses at the scene of a murder, action is slow to arrive and difficult to follow. The names are too cumbersome for non-Japanese speakers and the stories are too complex, especially when they require the viewer to know exactly what old legends are being slyly adapted. Takeshi’s quest takes him all over modern Japan, though to the uninitiated, one temple looks very much like another.

For the dub, Manga Entertainment does its best, but John Wolskel’s rewrite still has to stumble through lines like, “The head of the Kikuchi clan is always called Kikuchi-hiko. It is a very old name. It is recorded as Kukuchi-ku of the country of Kuna, in the Gishiwajin-den in the third century a.d.” Matters aren’t helped by a cast that can’t pronounce this stuff half the time. V

Dark Night’s Drama

1995. jpn: Yamiyo Jidaigeki. aka: Dark Night’s Period-Drama. TV series. dir: Takashi Imanishi, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Ryosuke Takahashi. scr: Takashi Ima­nishi, Yoshiyuki Tomino. des: Norio Shioyama, Kazuhiro Soeta. ani: Kazuhiro Soeta. mus: N/C. prd: Sunrise, Nippon TV. 15 mins. x 4 eps.

Four tales of old-time horror in the anthology spirit of Pet Shop of Horrors and The Cockpit from directors best known for giant-robot shows. Tales include The Hill of Old Age, which tells of a conspiracy hatched against Japan’s unifier, Nobunaga Oda; Seeing the Truth, about the assassin sent to murder Nobunaga’s successor, Ieyasu Tokugawa; a wandering swordsman saving a damsel in distress from evil spirits in The Ear of Jinsuke; while the final chapter, Prints from the Fall of the Bakufu, features a tomboy from a woodcut works charged with making a print of the young warrior Okita Soji. Broadcast as part of the Neo Hyper Kids program. NV

Dark Shell *

2003. jpn: Ori no Naka no Namameki. aka: Lust in the Cage. Video. dir: Kazuma Kanazawa. scr: Kazuma Kanazawa. des: Masaki Yamada. ani: Hiroya Iijima. mus: Teruo Takahama. prd: Studio Kuma, Blue Eyes. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

In an alternate world where World War II ended with a balkanized Japan plunged into chaos and civil conflict, soldiers escort captive women across the danger zone. They do so while making regular stops to have sex with their charges, regardless of their consent or lack thereof. Meanwhile, an unseen sniper begins to pick off members of the group until the act of sex itself becomes fraught with danger. Sexualized violence, depravity, and an original form of borderline necrophilia, as pleading victims find themselves having to choose between sex and death, and often getting both. Survivor Kaoruko has happier memories but they only serve for an exculpatory “parallel world” happy ending, where the war didn’t happen and she and her lover sit on a peaceful beach watching two girls at play who have actually been raped and killed. LNV

Dark Warrior *

1991. jpn: Maku Senjo. aka: Demon Pavilion Battleground. Video. dir: Masahisa Ishida. scr: Masaru Yamamoto. des: Kenichi Onuki, Osamu Tsuruyama. ani: Keisuke Morishita. mus: Teruo Takahama. prd: Daiei, Tokuma Japan Communications. 50 mins. x 2 eps.

When computer genius Joe Takegami hacks into a top-secret computer system in search of information on a mysterious girl, he discovers he is a clone created at the command of David Rockford, CEO of America’s largest electronics company. Forced to run for his life from the secret government project that created him, he must rely on his newly discovered psychic powers for protection. He meets another psychic, Aya Lee Rose, and the pair face the combined might of Rockford Electronics in a fight for truth and justice.

Author Sho Takejima (who also created Phantom Heroes) was killed in a motorcycle accident in the year of DW’s Japanese release, a tragedy cynically exploited to drum up interest in this awful anime adaptation of his novel. With shades of Blade Runner and Total Recall in its implanted memories and confused identities, DW (known by its Japanese title Maku Senjo in the U.K.) would have been years ahead of Perfect Blue were it not for the stultifying ineptitude of its execution.

It starts as it means to go on, with a pompous voice-over vainly attempting to justify another story of musclemen hitting each other. DW would like to play mind games with the viewer but has such a ham-fisted grasp of the real world that it’s hard to notice where the unreal comes into effect. The direction is lazily inexact, with characters “crossing the line” between shots so that they appear to be going in separate directions. The artwork is dreadful, including a laughably lopsided “Pentagon,” and the animation is criminally cheap, often below TV standards (Joe drives down one street which consists of just two buildings on a loop). Such travesties compound the shoddy script—we are just as shocked as Joe when we see a “double” of his former lover, since the two girls could not look more different! Genetically engineered super-warriors shrug off bullets but cower from flames. With incoherent nimbyism masquerading as environmental angst, Joe thinks that the world’s pollution problems can be solved simply by moving all the computer companies out of Silicon Valley, where, incidentally, it is always either foggy or raining. But in an anime where a character can continue to function after his brain has been punched out through the back of his head, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the production crew could manage a similar feat. LNV

Darkside Blues *

1994. Movie. dir: Nobuyasu Furukawa. scr: Mayori Sekijima. des: Hiroshi Hamazaki. ani: Hiroshi Hamazaki. mus: Kazuhiko Sotoyama. prd: Toho. 83 mins.

The future belongs to one company: the “family” business of the Persona Corporation. Only a few places on Earth hold out against its dominion; one is in Kabuki Town, a ramshackle part of Shinjuku known as the Tokyo Darkside. Tatsuya is a terrorist on the run, aided by a sorcerous stranger (also called Darkside). Tatsuya is a revolutionary, but Darkside is revolution personified, a messianic figure born of oppression.

Replaying Akira with supernatural elements, DB is a beautifully designed but confused Gothic tale with a slow pace and nonexistent ending, based on the 1985 novel by Demon City Shinjuku’s Hideyuki Kikuchi and filtered through a 1993 manga adaptation by Bride of Deimos’s Yuho Ashibe. Concerned with the soul rather than the body, it takes many liberties with place and time, such as doors that don’t necessarily lead to the same room twice. This is a film loaded with symbolism—flowers shedding petals, people turning into statues, spiders spinning red webs—but like its rebels without a cause, it says a lot but doesn’t really mean anything. Its best creation is Darkside himself, even down to his voice in the Japanese edition, which was done by male impersonator Natsuki Akira. Even the foley editing of his footsteps implies the sound of hooves, most noticeable when he’s walking up to a seedy hotel. His first appearance, a hell ride through the dimensions, is a masterly touch, but one that was done better in the opening scenes of Shutendoji.

Despite lush designs and a moody, suspenseful beginning, the animation and color palette get progressively cheaper as the film goes on. The same can be said for the meandering plot, which begins with a compelling mystery but soon finds itself sprinting for the finish, failing to cram the original story into the running time. NV

Darling *

2003. Video. dir: Susumu Kodo. scr: HajimeYamaguchi. des: Koji Murai. ani: Koji Murai. mus: Kanki Matsunaga, Kazuhiro Yamahara, Yasuke Inada. prd: TAC, Amumo. 25 mins. x 3 eps.

Jun Kitano is a recently married pornographic manga artist who has just been presented with a challenging project—come up with a new manga in a month or the evil publisher will have his wicked way with Sonoko, Jun’s lovely editor. Rising to the challenge, he sets about drawing at an alarming rate, assisted by his willing wife Miyuki, who dutifully role-plays a series of scenes designed to provide him with inspiration and also inspires his special power: Hyper Erection Mode. It wasn’t just the consumer end of the anime and manga business that got its own shows like Genshiken in the early 21st century. The creators got in on the act too, with tales of artists’ troubled lives like this and its homosexually inclined mirror-image Sensitive Pornograph. It makes a nice change for a married couple in anime to be having sex with each other. LN

Dartanius

1979. jpn: Mirai Robo Dartanius. aka: Future Robot Dartanius; Daltanias. TV series. dir: Katsutoshi Sasaki, Norio Kabeshima, Akira Suzuki. scr: Fuyunori Gobu, Masaki Tsuji. des: Yuki Hijiri, Akehiro Kaneyama, Yutaka Izubuchi. ani: Akehiro Kaneyama. mus: Hiroshi Tsutsui. prd: Y&K, Toei, Tokyo 12 Channel. 25 mins. x 47 eps.

Ten years after the alien Akrons invade Earth, the last remnants of humanity live in savage gangs in the ruins of the world’s cities. Street urchins Kento, Danji, Sanae, Mita, Tanosuke, Jiro, and Manabu find the entrance to a secret underground base where Professor Earl, a scientist from Planet Helios, has been working on a plan to stop Earth from suffering the same fate as his own world, already conquered by the Ak­rons. Kento and Danji are made the pilots of Atlas and Gumper, a robot and a spaceship, and in their first battle against the Akrons, they awaken the lost “third component,” the robotic lion Beralios. Earl realizes that Kento is the lost son of Harlin, King of Helios, and that with all the pieces in place, the three machines can combine to form the super-robot Dartanius. Though the robot was originally named after the hero of the Three Musketeers, the Godaikin release of the toy in the U.S. used the Daltanias spelling listed above as an alternative.

Dash Kappei

1981. TV series. dir: Masayuki Haya-
shi, Akehira Ishida, Keiichiro Mochizuki, Hiroko Tokita, Katsuhito Akiyama. scr: Shigeru Yanagawa, Masaru Yamamoto, Haruya Yamazaki, Takeshi Shudo, Akiyoshi Sakai, Osamu Sekiguchi, Sukehiro Tomita. des: Noboru Rokuda. ani: Sadao Miyamoto. mus: Koba Hayashi. prd: Tatsunoko, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 65 eps.

Kappei is a male student who is always hanging around the girls’ locker room. Because this anime was shown on TV at six in the evening, his reason for doing so is that he wants to collect white panties. This “harmless” but annoying fetish eventually lands him a place on the school basketball team, which he only accepts because of his interest in the underwear of the coach, Miss Na­tsu. Though the series soon veered into the standard tropes of sports anime like Aim for the Ace, this adaptation of Noboru Rokuda’s 1979 manga from Shonen Sunday often deviated from the original story, even to the extent of an episode set in space. Other anime adapted from Rokuda’s work include F and Twin. N

Dash Shikiro

1989. TV series. dir: Hiroshi Sasagawa, Hitoshi Nanba. scr: Takashi Yamada, Hiroko Naka, Kiichi Takayama. des: Oji Suzuki. ani: Oji Suzuki. mus: N/C. prd: Aubec, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 25 eps., 35 mins. (special).

Shikiro and his friends like racing their cars and outwitting their rivals in Team Horizon. Their vehicles look uncannily like the plastic model “shiki” kits on sale in Japan at the time.

Though allegedly based on a manga by “Saurus Tokuda” in Corocoro Comic, Dash Shikiro’s origins are in the same toy tie-in genre as Battle Skipper and the later Pokémon. Among a largely pseudonymous crew, former Battle of the Planets–director Sasakawa is prepared to stand up and be counted. A 1990 TV special, Team Shikiro vs. Team Horizon, featured the ultimate race, which was moved to South America for a bit of local color.

Day the Earth Shook, The

1997. jpn: Chikyu ga Ugoita Hi. Movie. dir: Toshio Goto. scr: Ayako Okina. des: Takashi Saijo. ani: Takashi Saijo. mus: N/C. prd: Tama Pro. 80 mins.

In 1995, an earthquake strikes the city of Kobe, and Tsuyoshi must swiftly adapt to the new danger brought into his sheltered life. Amid the destruction, he observes Japanese people pulling together and helping each other. Based on a story by Etsuko Kishigawa, this feel-good movie was rushed out to capitalize on the real-life events, and even real-life participants. Tetsuya Okazaki, who plays Tsuyoshi, supposedly experienced the quake himself as a middle-school student. The Kobe earthquake was also the indirect cause of several other anime—Bomberman’s first appearance was in a safety video, and the postquake financial climate transformed the planned live-action Perfect Blue into a cheaper anime version. Doubtless it also inspired the same year’s Bakumatsu Spacibo, which showed the Japanese coping with a historical natural disaster but bringing aid to troubled foreigners.

Dead Heat

1987. Video. dir: Toshifumi Kawase, Shinji Takamatsu. scr: Akinori Endo. des: Toshimitsu Kobayashi. ani: Toshi­mitsu Kobayashi. mus: Appo Sound Concept. prd: Sunrise. 36 mins.

Claiming to be “Japan’s first 3D anime,” this curio using the VHD-3D system features 21st-century youngsters racing “FX” machines—predictable crosses between motorcycles and giant robots. Failed driver Makoto is ready to quit the business until he is approached by Hayami Go, who offers him a hyper-engine to change his fortunes. In other words, it’s Cyberformula GPX but with clichés that stick out of your screen.

Dead Leaves *

2004. Video. dir: Hiroyuki Imaishi. scr: Takeichi Honda. des: Imaitoonz, Hiroyuki Imaishi. ani: Hiroyuki Imaishi. mus: Yoshihiro Ike. prd: Production I.G., Imaitoonz, Manga Entertainment. 52 mins.

In the near future, the only humans left on Earth are clones. Retro, who is incredibly strong and has a TV for a head, and Pandy, who has a pink panda-like birthmark over her right eye, wake up in a field with no memory of how they got there. They steal some clothes, food, and a car, but the local cops object, there’s a shoot-out, and the pair are thrown in prison on the Moon. The penal colony is known as Dead Leaves, and the jailors can abuse and kill inmates at will. Retro and Pandy form a strange relationship with their jailor, Galactica, and meet other inmates, including Dino Drill, who has a gigantic drill where his genitals should be, leading to some messy battles with the prison guards. But Retro and Pandy aren’t incarcerated for long, as having sex mysteriously sets them free to lead a bullet-laden rebellion against a wicked warden.

After several years of being told by fandom that it was misrepresenting Japanese animation abroad, Manga Entertainment had the last laugh by co-producing this puerile and often incoherent cartoon. It qualifies as anime, but its visual style and general outlook often makes it look more like one of the False Friends—compare to Kill Bill: The Origin of O-Ren, which was similarly a Japanese production made to meet parameters defined by Western demands. With a frenetic pace that often plays like a series of disconnected shorts along the lines of Aeon Flux or Blame!, DL is also senselessly violent and obsessed with bodily functions. Ironically, it became a symbol of the maturity of the anime business; in an environment that now supported the works of Studio Ghibli on American release, the company associated with the old sex-and-violence titles was now obliged to make them itself in order to meet its own requirements. Once relocated as a subsidiary of Anchor Bay, Manga Entertainment sensibly revisited past glories and threw itself into the sequel to Ghost in the Shell—a far better way of celebrating its achievements than this odious hour-long fight sequence. LNV

DearS *

2004. TV series. dir: Akira Suzuki. scr: Takawo Yoshioka. des: Shinji Ochi, Yoshihiro Watanabe. ani: Take Anzai. mus: Tomoki Hasegawa. prd: Hisanori Kunisaki, Nobuhiro Osawa, Takayasu Hatano, Bandai Visual, GENCO. 24 mins. x 12 eps. 24 mins. (v).

The plight of refugees gets a predictably cute anime makeover, when 150 aliens crash-land just off the coast of Japan. But they’re all beautiful, intelligent, and compassionate; actually a slave species à la Chobits, programmed to serve and please and lovingly termed DearS by the smitten population of Japan. If proof was ever needed that anime lives in its own fantasy realm far removed from real-world Japan, these immigrants are welcomed with open arms, granted citizenship, and even counselors to help them fit in—anyone who has been stopped for being Foreign After Dark in Japan will enjoy the irony. That doesn’t stop teenager Takeya Ikuhara from thinking the DearS are putting on an act so that the people of Earth will drop their guard. Imagine, then, his surprise when he somehow acquires a pretty, green-haired amnesiac alien girl for a roommate. The alien elects to stay and, much to the annoyance of his landlord’s daughter Neneko, soon adopts Takeya as her master in a replay of the unwelcome guest genre typified long ago by Urusei Yatsura. DearS counselor Khi, who knows about the species’ secrets, tries to separate the couple like the Almighty in Oh! My Goddess, but after just a month together Takeya wants her to stay with him. Based on on the manga by “Peach Pit,” the same collective of former fan artists turned pro whose Rozen Maiden was also animated. DearS began life in the pages of the monthly Dengeki Gao anthology magazine, but seems to have been intended as a multimedia manga, anime, radio drama, and PS2 game from the outset. A bonus “episode 10.5” appeared on one of the later DVDs.

Debts of Desire *

2002. jpn: Gakuen Chijoku no Zushiki. aka: Campus Scheme of Shame. Video. dir: Takayuki Yanase. scr: Shinji Rannai. des: Takayuki Yanase. ani: Takayuki Yanase. mus: Yoshi. prd: YOUC, Digital Works (Vanilla Series). 30 mins. x 2 eps.

Privileged rich kid Masaki wastes so much time using his father’s money to get girls into bed that father Gengoro eventually threatens to disown him. Gengoro tells him that unless he brings him someone he can control without money, he will be disinherited. Meanwhile, in apparent contradiction, Masaki is handed files on four of his father’s debtors, whose daughters attend the same school as him. One of them is his childhood friend Mai, who rashly promises that she will do anything necessary to repay her father’s debt, unaware that it is millions of yen and that Masaki is prepared to take payment in kind. Sexual coercion and prostitution duly follow in the style of Dark Love, in another anime in the Vanilla Series. LNV

Debut

1994. jpn: Tanjo. aka: Birth. Video. dir: Tomomi Mochizuki. scr: Go Sakamoto. des: Hiroshi Tanaka. ani: Hiroshi Tanaka. mus: Shinichi Kyoda. prd: Movic. 29 mins. x 2 eps.

Saori, Aki, and Kumi are three schoolgirls who want to become actresses, but they are beset by showbiz pressures and by the lure of handsome boys. In this short-lived series made to cash in on the success of the original computer game (itself a clone of Graduation), once the girls take their first steps in their chosen career, they meet a female time-traveler who knows the secrets of their futures.

Debutante Detectives Corps *

1995. jpn: Ojosama Sosa Ami. aka: Lady Investigator Network. Video. dir: Akiyuki Shinbo, Masami Shimoda. scr: Juzo Mutsuki. des: Shinji Ochi. ani: Shinji Ochi. mus: Takeshi Haketa. prd: Toho. 30 mins.

The five richest girls in the world attend Japan’s richest, most privileged school, where posing as international crime-fighters is one of their many high-class pursuits. After arriving at their new school, where they outdo each other with their modes of transport, a terrorist organization decides to assassinate them for their hubris and conspicuous consumption—an event that ironically forces the spoilt madams to cooperate with each other for the first time in their lives. With Japanese twins Kimiko and Miyuki Ayanokoji in charge, the rest of the team comprises gun-crazy blonde Russian sharp-shooter Nina Kirov, Chinese martial artist and gambling addict Reika Shu, and Adolf Hitler’s illegitimate granddaughter, Yoko.

Put into protective custody for their own good, the girls escape thanks to Miyuki’s electronics expertise and Yoko’s cunning disguises. Faced with terrorist attacks by plane, rifle, and fists, the girls dispatch their adversaries with weapons (Nina), martial arts (Reika), and psychic powers (Kimiko), only to discover that the entire hazard has been engineered to trick them all into demonstrating what they can accomplish as a team.

Based on an idea by Devil Hunter Yohko’s Juzo Mutsuki, Debutante Detectives was conceived as a vehicle to showcase a group of minor voice actresses collectively known as Virgo. It is thus little more than an excuse to put the girls into the public eye in order to sell spin-off games and albums. Frivolously throwing away its limited character routines in just half a shallow hour, its original raison d’être is completely destroyed by the removal of the Japanese voices for the English dub, leaving nothing but an orphaned “episode one” of a series that was never going to happen. Compare to its predecessor Girl Detectives’ Club.

Deep Blue Fleet

1993. jpn: Konpeki no Kantai. Video. dir: Takeyuki Kanda, Hiromichi Matano, Shigenori Kurii. scr: Ryosuke Takahashi. des: Masami Suda, Noriyasu Yamauchi. ani: Masami Suda. mus:
Koji Makaino. prd: JC Staff. 45 mins. x 28 eps.

Isoroku Takano, a Japanese pilot shot down over Bougainville Island in 1943, is thrown through a time slip and allowed to relive his life, retaining all the memories of his former existence. Teaming up in 1941 with another time-traveler, Yasaburo Otaka, he seizes power in the Japanese government. With Otaka as prime minister and Takano leading the armed forces, the Japanese demand that Western powers pull out of Asia. When the Americans refuse to comply, the Japanese declare war and bomb Pearl Harbor.

Foiling the evil American plans for the atom bomb, the Japanese push the enemy back to Christmas Island, using the foe’s own weapons against them. As the fighting rolls down from the Torres Strait to the Tasman Sea, U.S. President Roosevelt has a heart attack and dies. Scared at the Japanese victories, Hitler declares war on his one-time allies. The Japanese navy blows up a Third Reich atomic facility on Madagascar, and, in a desperate attempt to curb Nazi advances, launches suicide attacks in the Red Sea. By 1946, a stalemate leads to espionage operations in California and Manchuria, and the Nazis launch a U-boat counterattack in the Indian Ocean.

Based on the long series of novels by Yoshio Aramaki, Deep Blue Fleet takes a very different approach toward the pacifist posturings more commonly seen in English-language anime. Ironically, this “alternate history” has more in common with genuine Wartime Anime, but it coyly extricates itself from the real issues of WWII. Mixing the second chances of Emblem Take 2 with the historical reenactment of Animentary, the series dispenses with the Allied enemy relatively quickly—there is just enough time to self-righteously shoo them out of the Pacific before more acceptable foes enter the fray. From that point on, the story is an excuse for a series of battles utilizing Axis weapons and vehicles that never left the drawing board. Compare to Ted Nomura’s U.S. comic World War II:1946, which places similar emphasis on “what-if” technology.

A one-shot special, Secret Launch of the Sorai (1997), features two engineer brothers working on a secret project, who see American planes in the air and launch ahead of schedule to thwart the 1942 Doolittle bombing raid on Tokyo. It is Deep Blue Fleet in a nutshell—a famous Japanese defeat turned into a victory. Though some may claim that the series’ value lies in its painstaking research, the Doolittle raiders are flying B-30s instead of historically accurate B-25s.

After the initial 19 episodes, the series continued as Fleet of the Rising Sun (Kyokujitsu no Kantai), directed by Hiromichi Matano and backtracking a year to 1945 and the launch of Japan’s latest battleship, the Yamato Takeru, which immediately trounces Germany’s Bismarck II. The flagship soon leads a fleet to Europe, where, amid its spats with Hitler, it takes time out to shell Britain. As with earlier episodes, the result is an unnerving window on a very different world, one that holds the sick fascination of a traffic accident. V

Deep Voice

2002. Video. dir: Mamoru Yakoshi. scr: Toshiya Hashimoto. des: Yoshi Ten. ani: Akihiro Asanuma. mus: N/C. prd: Crossnet, Museum Pictures, Milky. 30 mins. x 3 eps.

After a car crash, Takumi awakes from a coma to discover that he has a psychic ability to hear voices à la Demon Lord Dante. Unsure of whether he is seeing the past or a possible future, he experiences hallucinatory “memories” of raping two of the nurses at the hospital, as well as a journalist who is covering his case. Later episodes find Takumi discovering that he is somehow complicit in a clandestine series of tests at the hospital, and before long, he is forced to have sex as part of a new experiment. Based on an erotic computer game that, according to the press release, “overwhelmed the world” in 2001. Perhaps the rest of us were in a coma. LNV

Delinquent in Drag *

1992. jpn: Oira Sukeban. aka: I’m Ban Suke. Video. dir: Yusaku Saotome. scr: Fumio Saikiji. des: Satoshi Hirayama. ani: Nobuhiro Nagayama. mus: Keiji Kunimoto. prd: Studio Signal. 45 mins.

Banji Suke’s parents want the best for their son, but only if the price is right. When he is expelled from all the local schools, they decide the cheapest option is to dress him up in women’s clothes and send him to a girls’ school. Shameless School–creator Go Nagai piles on the transvestite trauma, as Banji must learn how to wear bras and makeup, avoid the locker-room spies, and harbor a secret love for a fellow student.

Surprisingly devoid of nudity and sex, this “comedy” began life as a manga in Shonen Sunday, home of the similarly gender-bending Ranma 1/2. Featuring the Pantyhose Brigade (girls who fight in their underwear) and an oedipally paranoid father convinced that his son will elope with his wife, it also has evil school staff like those of Nagai’s Kekko Kamen—a principal who wants to steal Banji’s jewelry. However, unbelievably cheap animation makes the show look far older than it really is. The best joke in the whole sorry affair is the title, since “Oira Suke Ban” can mean either “I’m Ban Suke” or “I’m a bad girl,” as in the feisty females of Sukeban Deka.

Delpower X

1986. jpn: Delpower X: Bakahatsu Miracle Genki. aka: Delpower X: Explosion Miracle Happy. Video. dir: Masahito Sato. scr: Sumiko Tsukamoto, Aki Tomato. des: Ayumi Chikake, Hidekazu Shigeno, Mutsumi Inomata, Yutaka Izubuchi, Haruhiko Mikimoto, Mamoru Nagano, Masami Yuki, Iruka Tabi. ani: Ayumi Chikake. mus: Takahiro Negishi. prd: Big Bang. 40 mins.

As video took over with the arrival of Madox-01 and Assemble Insert, numerous famous designers lent their names to this giant-robot comedy one-shot in which the feckless robot designer Hosogetzel tries to demonstrate that German ingenuity can conquer the world. However, both he and his bitchy American sidekicks, Suzy and Lola, are defeated by the plucky Japanese schoolgirl Manami who pilots her grandfather’s prototype robot, the Delpower X.

Demon Beast Invasion *

1990. jpn: Yoju Kyoshitsu. aka: Demon-Beast Classroom. Video. dir: Jun Fukuda, Yoshitaka Fujimoto, Juki Yoma, Kan Fukumoto. scr: Joji Maki, Wataru Amano. des: Mari Mizuta, Junichi Watanabe, Rin Shin, Hisashi Ezura, Toshikazu Uzami. ani: N/C. mus: Teruo Takahama. prd: Daiei.45 mins. x 6 eps., 30 mins. x 2 eps. (Revenge), 30 mins. x 2 eps. (Descent),  30 mins. x 2 eps. (Ecstasy).

Earth’s former inhabitants return to reclaim their homeworld after 100 million years’ absence, planning their conquest by sending rapist-agents to breed an invading army with young women. The Interplanetary Mutual Observation Agency sends three agent sisters to stop them, including the beautiful Ash, who is perhaps named for Hunting Ash, the 1992 live-action tentacle film from Angel of Darkness–director Mitsunori Hattori. Meanwhile, Terran schoolgirls are overwhelmed by attacking space-demons, who mix violence with plaintive cries for maternal affection. Ash falls in love with an Earth boy, eventually sacrificing her own life to destroy the beast within him.

Based on a story by Urotsukidoji’s Toshio Maeda, DBI repeats his insidiously clever storytelling—beneath the horrific sex and violence is a masterful exploitation of adolescent fears. Hero Muneto and sometime girlfriend Kayo pay the price of sex when she gives birth to a monster. As with the subtext of much of the Cream Lemon series, most of the remaining action involves their attempts to turn back the clock to the days before the loss of innocence. The series also cleverly survives multiple endings; the threat is defeated in episode four, but returns to haunt the young lovers on vacation in Hong Kong. Muneto teams up once more with the IMO Agency, only to discover that its plan is to end the threat forever by killing Kayo. The “final” episode, with the lovers on another vacation, reveals that the Demon Beast’s spirit can live on even after its body is killed.

Three two-part spin-offs were released after the original series in 1995. Revenge of the Demon Beasts (also available in the U.S.) featured the return of Ash’s sisters, BB and Dee, with a plan to bring their sister back from the dead to fight a new enemy. Descent of the Goddess and Ecstasy of the Holy Mother continued the story in Japan, with the last of the IMO, Captain “O,” helping Kayo destroy her horrific past.

DBI features a dramatic drop in quality of animation and music when compared to Maeda’s earlier work and, like the similar Adventure Kid, attempted to compensate for these shortcomings by using real-life erotic stars as voice actresses. It also inadvertently contributed to anime’s reputation abroad as child pornography. The American release from Anime 18 (for which the long-suffering “Moe I. Yada” turned in a thanklessly superior translation) removed the blurs, dots, and mosaics of the Japanese version, although the original animators had never intended the images to be seen uncensored. The genitals revealed are thus incompletely drawn, devoid of hair or distinguishing marks, and give the false impression that all the sexually active characters are underage. LNV

Demon City Shinjuku *

1988. jpn: Makai Toshi Shinjuku. aka: Hell City Shinjuku, Monster City. Video. dir: Yoshiaki Kawajiri. scr: Kaoru Okamura. des: Yoshiaki Kawajiri. ani: Naoyuki Onda. mus: Motoichi Umeda, Osamu Shoji. prd: Madhouse. 80 mins.

Ten years ago, the evil Levi Ra killed Kenichiro Izayoi and cast him into a fiery pit. Ra is the earthbound emissary of the demon world and is preparing to open the portals for all his devilish allies. Only Kenichiro’s son, Kyoya, can stop him, assisted by Sayaka, the daughter of an elder statesman who has just abolished nuclear weapons and solved the Arab/Israeli problem, and Chibi, a midget on roller skates. Kyoya and friends must walk into the demon-infested wasteland at the heart of Tokyo and stop Levi Ra before it is too late.

Based on a novel by Wicked City’s Hideyuki Kikuchi and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, the passionless, perfunctory DCS (known as Monster City in the U.K.) is at least partly responsible for the popular mainstream notion that “all anime are the same.” Opening with the stark red/blue color palette so beloved of Kawajiri, its lead character is a dead ringer for his Goku Midnight Eye. Its plot is not dissimilar to the second Urotsukidoji, which also features both a demon world trying to enter our own and a climactic battle at the Shinjuku skyscrapers. One apparent steal, however, is no such thing. An early shot that shows Levi Ra almost split in two then repair himself was two years ahead of a similar image in James Cameron’s Terminator 2.

Strangely paced, with long spells of silence broken by cheesily awful music, its ending is surprisingly anticlimactic, though perhaps nobody should expect too much from the story of a Ben Kenobi clone telling a Luke Skywalker clone to avenge the “death” of an Anakin Skywalker clone with a magic sword. One gets the impression that the crew were all working on autopilot, a feeling unchanged by the listless English-language dub, which inexplicably gives half the cast Tex-Mex accents while the pale Sayaka is played as a blue-blooded British consumptive. Listen for some classic Manga Entertainment “fifteened” dialogue (added to raise the rating to 15-year-olds and up in the U.K.), including, “I’m gonna tear his head off and shove it up his ass!” LV

Demon Fighter Kocho *

1997. jpn: Yakusai Kocho. Video. dir: N/C. scr: N/C. des: N/C. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: KSS. 35 mins.

Sexy teen astrology student Kocho uses her brain, her body, sister Koran, and boy decoy Kosaku to fight lustful samurai spirits at her school, sorry, university in a one-shot rip-off of Devil Hunter Yohko. In a thoughtful gesture to this anime’s low running time, the American distributors include a ““Making Of”” that is actually longer than the anime, featuring the dub actors at work and play. Based on a two-volume 1995 manga by Nonki Miyasu in which Chinese immigrant Kocho would seek to supplement her meager income by posing nude in magazines. Not to be confused with the far nastier Demon Warrior Koji, released around the same time. LNV

Demon Hunter

1989. aka: Makaryudo Demon Hunter. Video. dir: Yukio Okamoto. scr: Yukio Okamoto. des: Yuji Moriyama, Chuichi Watanabe. ani: Yuji Moriyama. mus: Nobuo Ito. prd: Studio Fantasia, C.Moon. 30 mins.

A pretty demon hunter from the demon world comes to our own dimension in search of an escaped beast. While pursuing it around a Japanese high school, she realizes that her former lover from her own world appears to have been reincarnated as a local boy in ours. Based on a manga in Lollipop magazine. NV

Demon Lord Dante *

2002. jpn: Ma-O Dante. aka: Devil King Dante. TV series. dir: Kenichi Maejima. scr: Seizo Uehara. des: Toshimitsu Kobayashi. ani: N/C. mus: Hiroshi Motokura. prd: Magic Bus, Dynamic, AT-X. 25 mins. x 13 eps.

Disturbed by nightmares of demons and destruction, Ryo Utsugi hallucinates that a devil in an icy cave is calling out to him each night. He eventually discovers that Dante, the most powerful demon lord ever created, may soon walk the Earth once more, destroying human civilization in the process. All that is required is the sacrifice of a particular human girl. One Professor Veil turns out to be the reincarnation of Beelzebub who believes that the chosen victim is Ryo’s virginal sister Saori. Ryo confronts Dante in the Himalayas, where he is tricked into releasing the demon himself. In a last-minute accident, he instead combines with Dante, creating a schizophrenic, unpredictable gestalt that is part-superhero and part-demon.

Attacked by the massed forces of the Japanese army, Ryo causes death and destruction throughout Japan before confronting four other Demon Kings that have recently been awakened from the sleep of ages by Russian soldiers in Siberia. Meanwhile, the forces of righteousness have decided that the only way to fight the demons is to create mass panic in order to encourage humanity to make a stand—they achieve this by orchestrating a series of vicious murders across Japan and pinning the blame on the demons. The conflict escalates until a final confrontation that pits Dante and his sometime allies against Satan himself.

Based on a 1971 manga in Bokura weekly by Go Nagai, DLD was forever eclipsed by the artist’s decision not to sell it to a TV company for adaptation, but to instead offer them his similar Devilman. DLD is undoubtedly a prototype, not just for Devilman but for all the apocalyptic tales that followed, particularly Nagai’s later Shutendoji. However, in only being made into an anime 30 years after its first publication, DLD appears to all intents and purposes more like a poor man’s Urotsukidoji than the ground-breaking work it undoubtedly would have been. LNV

Demon Warrior Koji *

1999. jpn: Gokuraku Satsujin Choken Kan. aka: Koji: Paradise Assassin Investigator, Sex Crime Detective Koji, Sex Murder Investigation Officer Koji. Video. dir: Yasunori Urata. scr: Takaro Kawaguchi. des: Ayato Muto. ani: Ayato Muto, Teruaki Murakami. mus: Masamichi Amano. prd: Phoenix Entertainment, Sepia. 41 mins. x 3 eps.

Koji Yamada is a man of many talents—a stuntman by day and a demon-hunter by night, he also has the ability to transform into a demon himself. With the aid of a mismatched band of superpowered assistants, he fights supernatural crimes that normal police can’t even begin to touch.

Koji plumbs new depths in Toshio Maeda’s futile quest to outdo his own Urotsukidoji. Featuring a hokey gang of costumed crime-fighters, seemingly inspired by Doc Savage, and the usual cavalcade of demonic assaults, Koji is also the least well-animated of Maeda’s many works. As with other later Maeda anime such as Demon Beast Invasion, there are desperate attempts to create interest through gimmickry, including “guest appearances” by the voices of erotic stars, and even uncensored shots of pubic hair. Meanwhile, bored voice actors yawn their way through scenes of depravity enacted by characters whose designs are noticeably uglier than the Maeda norm. With comedy jailbait, death by oral sex, and a rack of childhood family traumas, this replays many of Maeda’s earlier themes, but the law of diminishing returns has reached such a low level by this point that these are even likely to annoy his fans. Director Urata even teases his audience, framing one scene as a flashback of his own Ninja Resurrection, only to reveal that it is from one of the films for which Koji is performing stunts. In other words, even the crew wish it was somewhere else. In a final irony, the distributor’s attempt to cover up naked breasts with daubs of blood on the U.S. box art actually made the series look even more violent and unpleasant than it really was. LNV

Demon-Beast Phalanx

1989. jpn: Maju Sensen. Video. dir: Shunji Oga. scr: Sho Aikawa. des: Hideyuki Motohashi. ani: Eiji Takaoka, Keiichi Sato, Satoshi Saga. mus: Hiroya Watanabe. prd: Magic Bus, Dynamic Planning. 45 mins. x 3 eps.

Replaying Frankenstein for a Japanese audience, 13 scientists seek to tap genetic powers by creating a hybrid of man and beast. Years later, 13 of their children are embroiled in a battle to undo their handiwork, while Shinichi, the son of one of the scientists, teams up with Christian super-beings to save the world.

Often confused with Adventure Kid because of their similar Japanese titles, DBP is actually based on a manga by Getter Robo–cocreator Ken Ishikawa, whose inspiration was the Book of Revelation. NV

Demonic Liger

1989. jpn: Jushin Raigar. TV series. dir: Norio Kabeshima. scr: Sho Aikawa, Yoshiaki Takahashi, Toshiki Inoue. des: Miku Uchida. ani: Miku Uchida. mus: Hiroshi Tobisawa. prd: Sunrise, Nagoya TV. 25 mins. x 42 eps.

Bold Earthmen in suits of “bio-armor” hold off an alien invasion in a series created by Devilman’s Go Nagai for the Gundam-studio Sunrise. Eventually the good robots, Raigar and Dolgar, are heavily damaged but still defeat the evil robot Drago, as if you couldn’t guess.

Dentsu

Founded in 1901, Dentsu and its manifold subsidiaries form the largest advertising concern in Japan. It has long sought a series of cunning strategies in vertical integration, proclaiming that “every marketing dollar has to be spent three times.” To this end, it has bought shares in radio, TV, and media companies all around the world, all the better to secure preferable deals for its advertising and product placement. Dentsu’s perennial interest in graphic design and short, eye-catching snippets of film soon brought it into contact with the anime world, causing it to be a prime financer of early commercial animation and puppetry. Today, it retains strong interests within Japan in the TBS television network and also functions directly as a producer of anime including Bleach, Law of Ueki, and Animal Alley. Dentsu also bought Pioneer’s entertainment division, which was renamed Geneon Entertainment, making it the owner of numerous anime including Haibane Renmei, Catnapped, and Serial Experiments Lain.

Depravity *

2002. jpn: Daraku Jokyoshi. aka: Destruction of a Female Teacher. Video. dir: Hideki Arai. scr: Koichi Murakami. des: Hideki Arai. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Five Ways. 30 mins. x 3 eps.

A group of schoolboys get off on kidnapping teachers, breaking into schools at night, and assaulting their bound and gagged victims until they cry out with ecstasy. They pick the wrong teacher with Kiriko, a tough martial arts expert. Two of them are soon lying hurt in the nurses’ room, and Kiriko starts to threaten the group with exposure to the police. But her language excites them and so they tell her that if she can stand ten minutes of them playing with her genitals without getting wet, they’ll let her go. Since she has the upper hand here, only in a porn anime would she agree, but this is a porn anime so all rational thought is suspended. Based on a manga of the same name by artist Fusen Club. LNV

Descendents of Darkness *

2000. jpn: Yami no Matsuei. TV series. dir: Satoshi Otsuki, Hideki Okamoto. scr: Masaharu Amiya. des: Yumi Nakayama. ani: Yumi Nakayama, Kazuo Yamazaki. mus: N/C. prd: JC Staff, WOWOW. 25 mins. x 13 eps.

Tsuzuki Asato and Kurosaki Hisoka are members of the shinigami (elite undead), who can use the Book of the Dead to reanimate the deceased. Based on the manga by Yoko Matsushita in Hana to Yume magazine.

Desert Punk *

2005. jpn: Sunabozu. TV series. dir: Takuya Inagaki. scr: Hiroshi Yamaguchi. des: Takahiro Yoshimatsu. ani: Gonzo. mus: Kohei Tanaka. prd: Gonzo, arp Japan, C&G Ent., CBC, Pony Canyon et al. 24 mins. x 24 eps.

Civilization was destroyed hundreds of years ago. Japan’s once fertile Kanto plain is a desert. Young Kanta Mizuno is drawn into a conflict between the authoritarian government and a group of rebels trying to take over. He becomes the legendary Desert Punk, Sunabozu, a hired gun for whom no job is too dirty and nothing gets between him and his pay. But he has a rival—the Desert Vixen.

Based on Masatoshi Usune’s manga in Comic Beam monthly and conceived more as a comedy in the style of Trigun than anything serious in the style of Fist of the North Star. Compare to Captain Kuppa.

Desert Rose

1993. jpn: Suna no Bara. aka: Rose of the Sands. Video. dir: Yasunaga Aoki. scr: Kaoru Shintani. des: Minoru Yamazawa. ani: Minoru Yamazawa. mus: Jun Watanabe. prd: JC Staff. 45 mins.

When Mariko Rosebank’s husband and child are killed in a terrorist bombing, she is left with nothing but a rose-shaped scar and a thirst for revenge. In this one-shot adaptation of the 1989 Young Animal manga from Area 88’s Kaoru Shintani, Mariko joins the tactical assault squad C.A.T. The story was revived for a “manga video” visual comic in 2000. NV

Desperate Carnal House-wives *

2005. jpn: Hitozuma Ryojoku Sankanbi. aka: Housewife Rape Visitors’ Day. Video. dir: Hotaru Aoi. scr: Hotaru Aoi. des: Hirotaka. ani: Hirotaka. mus: N/C. prd: Dream Entertainment, GP Museum Soft, Milky. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

Three pretty Japanese housewives arrive at their children’s school, Kawamura Academy, believing themselves to have been called to apologize for some bad behavior by their offspring. However, when they arrive the school is closed, and they are led to a deserted building by two men, who proceed to teach them “obedience” lessons, in which they are forced to reenact their children’s school-day activities while wearing (or, soon, not wearing) sexy versions of the school uniforms. A female teacher is present, and assures them that everything is above board, although she only does so because she has been raped into submission earlier on. Three more hapless mothers are duly abused in the next episode. Based on an original work by Yasuhide Kunitatsu, and given a title in the American market designed to imply nonexistent connections with the TV series Desperate Housewives (2004). LNV

detatoko Princess *

1997. aka: Chancer Princess. Video. dir: Akiyuki Shinbo. scr: Mayori Sekijima, Masashi Kubota. des: Hiroko Sakurai. ani: Hiroko Sakurai. mus: Shinken Kenra. prd: JC Staff. 30 mins. x 3 eps.

Princess Lapis is a spunky blonde noble in the magical realm of Sorcererland, eternally competing with her rival Topaz, the Witch of the North. Lapis has just one talent, although it is a devastating one—the ability to cancel out magic, making her incredibly dangerous in a world that relies on sorcery for building, energy and the smooth running of society. Her exasperated mother Sapphire decides to send her away on a camping trip for a couple of days, but unwittingly aims her magical mirror of transportation at the wrong location, teleporting Lapis to the far side of the world. Lapis is then obligated to travel back home, with only a random assortment of companions to help her, including the comedically invulnerable Kohaku, the diminutive plant-pixie Nandora, and her irritable old tutor.

Former Tenchi Muyo! manga creator Hitoshi Okuda created this Jell-O mold successor seemingly in an attempt to secure his own franchise after drawing someone else’s for so long. It unravels in the tradition of other comic fantasies like Dragon Half and Slayers, setting up a derivative quest narrative and hoping to occlude its shortcomings behind a smokescreen of knowing irony. The preceding radio drama featured a gimmick in which Lapis would sing her spells, although that is not repeated here.

Detective Academy Q

2003. jpn: Tantei Gakuen Q. TV series. dir: Noriyuki Abe, Akihiro Enomoto, Akira Shimizu, Junya Koshiba, Katsuyoshi Yatabe, Kenichi Maejima. scr: Makoto Hayashi, Atsushi Yamatoya, Daisuke Watanabe, Kyoko Iwamura, Masahiro Okubo, Natsuko Takahashi, Yuko Fukuda. des: Masaya Onishi. ani: N/C. mus: Daisuke Ikeda. prd: Studio Pierrot, TBS. 25 mins. x 45 eps.

Ninth grader Kyu wants to be the world’s best detective but it looks as if he may end up on the wrong side of the law when he accidentally runs into a middle-aged man who accuses him of stealing 10,000 yen in the collision. Megumi “Meg” Minami intervenes, using her photographic memory and deductive skills to work out from the man’s testimony exactly where the missing note fell. Together with Ryu Amakusa, a strange student from Tozai University, Kintaro Toyama, descendant of the renowned Toyama no Kinsan (see Samurai Gold), and genius computer programmer Kazuya Narusawa, the pair take the entrance exam for famous detective Morihiko Dan’s Dan Detective School. They do so well that they are placed in a special class known as Q (for “Qualified”), taught by the founder himself. There begins a series of criminal puzzles that Q class has to solve in competition with rivals in A class. Some of the adventures don’t appear in the manga from Shonen Magazine weekly, which was written by Seimaru Amagi and drawn by Fumiya Sato, both of whom worked on the Young Kindaichi Files manga. The “Q” tag has indicated strange mysteries ever since the live-action series Ultra Q (*DE) and Twilight Q; as it’s also our hero’s name, and the Japanese number for his school grade, Kyu is obviously destined for his chosen field.

Detonator Orgun *

1991. Video. dir: Masami Obari. scr: Hideki Kakinuma. des: Michitaka Kikuchi. ani: Masanori Nishii. mus: Susumu Hirasawa. prd: AIC. 60 mins. x 3 eps.

Tomoru skips school to hang out at the aviation museum, where he harbors secret dreams of becoming a pilot. He gets what he wants when Earth is attacked by invaders, and he signs up with the Earth Defense Force.

Despite such a hackneyed opening, Detonator Orgun plays some neat tricks with the traditions of robot shows. Tomoru lives 200 years in our future but has the problems and worries of any teenager. Despite living in a sci-fi fan’s dream world, he’s bored at the idea of a career in lunar finance and thinks the floating equatorial city he calls home is too uncool for words. An early scene in which Tomoru argues with a friend is a stunningly accurate prediction of that common modern malaise: a roommate who “helpfully” finishes all your computer games for you while you’re out. Look out, too, for Kakinuma’s tongue-in-cheek adverts for the Defense Corps, shown here long before Babylon 5 or Starship Troopers got the hang of postmodern irony. Finally, there’s a sweet epilogue in which we discover that Tomoru has gotten exactly what he wished for, the chance to fly with the other pilots and someday inspire another wide-eyed museum visitor.

Scenarist Kakinuma draws the full benefit of writing directly for three hour-long episodes; without a TV series, comic, or console game to muddy the creative waters, Detonator Orgun has none of the compression or hurried storytelling of lesser shows. The robot battles and dream sequences are artfully done, though director Obari would use similar material to even better effect in his later Virus. Future You’re under Arrest–director Kazuhiro Furuhashi also worked on DO as a humble storyboarder.

Unfortunately, the dub is another mediocre effort from Manga Entertainment’s mercifully short-lived cost-cutting experiments in a Welsh studio, and elements that are deliberately evocative (such as Hirasawa’s sub-Vangelis music) will strike many as just plain unimaginative. It’s also a little jarring to see that the young Tomoru’s idols are actually pilots in the Luftwaffe—one of those moments when anime and Japan suddenly seem incredibly alien.

Devadasy *

2001. Video. aka: De:vadasy. dir: Nobuhiro Kondo. scr: Sho Tokimura. des: As‘maria (mecha). ani: Shinji Takeuchi. mus: N/C. prd: AIC. 70 mins.

In 2012, aliens attack an overpopulated Earth ravaged by global warming, ingesting humans for their energy. The UN is helpless against the onslaught unless the SPIRIT organization’s giant robot Devadasy, powered by the “sexual energy” between its selected male and female pilots, can stand firm. Unlike Evangelion’s Shinji, 15-year-old Kei needs little convincing to ditch schoolwork and climb into a cockpit with the attractive Misako, though he is dogged by schoolmate Naoki, who also carries a torch for him. Featuring giant robots, a love triangle, and a lone boy in a dormitory of girls, AIC’s press notes for Devadasy sheepishly promised “the same as usual” but with more blatant excuses for titillation.

Devil and the Princess

1981. jpn: Akuma to Himegimi. Movie. dir: Ryosuke Takahashi. scr: Shunichi Yukimuro. des: Yasuhiro Yamaguchi. ani: Yasuhiro Yamaguchi. mus: Haruo Chikada. prd: Toei. 32 mins.

The 18-year-old princess of Tomorrow Castle has a beauty famed far and wide but a less-attractive penchant for daytime drinking. Despite this, she has plenty of suitors, including a devil wearing a cunning disguise. One day, the princess meets Snow White at her teahouse in the forest, and while the girls get acquainted, the devil kidnaps them both. Shown in a double bill with Door into Summer, this adaptation of a weird “beauty and the beast” fairy tale by Banana Fish’s Akimi Yoshida was also the directorial debut for Votoms-director Takahashi.

Devil Hunter Yohko *

1991. jpn: Mamono Hunter Yoko. aka: Devil Hunter Yoko. Video. dir: Katsu­hisa Yamada, Hisashi Abe, Akiyuki Shinbo. scr: Sukehiro Tomita, Tatsu­hiko Urahata. des: Takeshi Miyao. ani: Tetsuro Aoki. mus: Hiroya Watanabe. prd: Madhouse, NCS, Toho. 45 mins. x 1 eps., 30 mins. x 3 eps., 45 mins. x 2 eps.

Yohko Mano is the latest in a long line of devil-hunters. Torn between her grandmother’s insistence that she carry on the tradition (for which she must remain a virgin) and her mother’s urging to get knocked up as soon as possible, she is beset by demons who use any means possible to dispel the threat she presents. After a promising opener in which a local nice-guy is possessed and turned into a bad-boy in an attempt to seduce Yohko, later episodes fast decline in quality. She acquires a manager, Azusa (presaging a similar relationship in the later CardCaptors), calms angry spirits at a construction site, appears in her own music video (the pointless Yohko 4-ever, which is sensibly bundled with other episodes in the U.S. release), then dies and rises from the dead. The sixth episode, confusingly called Yohko2 in Japan, has Yohko defending the family honor from her look-alike cousin, Ayako. An inferior translation of the first three episodes was released in the U.K. in 1995 as Devil Hunter Yoko (sic). Producer Juzo Mutsuki would create a similar clash of traditional and contemporary ghostbusting in Phantom Quest Corp. NV

Devilman *

1972. TV series, video, movie. dir: Tomoharu Katsumata, Nobutaka Nishizawa. scr: Masaki Tsuji, Tadaaki Yamazaki, Susumu Takaku. des: Go Nagai. ani: Kazuo Komatsubara, Takeshi Shirato, Kazuo Mori, Shingo Araki, Makoto Kunihara, Masamune Ochiai. mus: Go Misawa. prd: Dynamic Planning, Oh Pro, NET. 25 mins. x 38 eps. (TV), 43 mins. (m), 50 mins. x 2 eps. (v1), 25 mins. x 26 eps. (Devil Lady), 50 mins. (Amon).

Devilman and two other demons are sent to Earth to possess humans and cause chaos. Finding two Japanese families nearby when they awake from their long slumber in the Himalayas, Devilman chooses to possess Akira Fudo (his first choice, Akira’s father, having died from fright), and the bedeviled boy is adopted by the kindly Makimura family. Falling in love with his stepsister Miki, Akira forgets his original mission. His former demon overlord, Zenon, sends a succession of creatures to kill him, and Akira must call on his ill-gotten powers.

When a Japanese TV network wanted to adapt Go Nagai’s Demon Lord Dante for TV in 1972, the artist instead offered them his new Devilman project, already running in Shonen Magazine. An uneasy combination of superhero serial and macabre horror, it featured a schoolboy forced to become an agent of good by using the powers of evil. Following his TV series, Devilman would appear in Tomoharu Katsumata’s theatrical short Mazinger Z vs. Devilman (1973), in which Dr. Hell tries to recruit him to defeat the robot warrior of the title.

In 1987, Devilman was revived for a two-part video adventure directed by Tsutomu Iida, which altered much of the designs and origins while keeping a retro 1970s look. In the video Akira is a shy boy who lives with his simpering childhood friend Maki while his parents are away on a business trip. His tough friend, Ryo (the hermaphroditic son of Satan) tells him of the existence of demons, and that Earth was once occupied by this evil race. The only way to defeat a demon is to fuse with one, and Ryo convinces Akira to allow this to happen. Ryo slaughters human beings at a nightclub to summon a demon, lucking into Amon, the Lord of Darkness. Because Akira is pure of heart, he is able to control the demon within him, turning his evil powers to good use. The second episode (as in the original TV series) features a battle with Amon’s former lover, Sirene, though no further episodes were made. Devilman’s best moments are the flashback scenes of a prehistoric, demon-infested dreamtime that owed nothing to East or West, but it was the messy confluence of Japanese and European mythology that brought Devilman down (not helped by the U.K. dubbers Manga Entertainment’s inability to get some of the classical references right, though they did find the time to write new lines like, “I’m gonna rip off your head and shit down your neck!”). The same director would make the three-part Chibi Character Go Nagai World (1990) featuring squashed-down versions of several Nagai characters fighting at Armageddon. Akira Fudo also put in a cameo appearance in Nagai’s later Cutey Honey.

Nagai returned to the franchise in 1997 with Devilman Lady, retelling the story for the more adult Comic Morning magazine by altering the sex of his protagonist and introducing evolutionary angles. Vampire Princess Miyu–director Toshihiro Hirano and Armitage III–writer Chiaki Konaka adapted it into a 26-episode TV series in 1998. Though characters from the earlier versions make cameo appearances, the remake centers on Jun Fudo, a shy fashion model (a schoolteacher in the manga) who begins to develop mystic powers. As part of Mother Nature’s answer to overpopulation, a “Devil Beast Syndrome” is afflicting the world’s poor, transforming them into rapacious cannibal demons. Jun, however, has been genetically engineered by her scientist father to retain her former memories after infection and uses her power to fight off further incursions. The series was released in America under the less confusing title, Devil Lady.

Devilman was revived again for Amon: The Apocalypse of Devilman (2000), a 50-minute video released to cash in on the millennium, supervised by Fist of the North Star’s Toyoo Ashida and directed by Kenichi Takeshita. Featuring creatures designed by Yasushi Nirasawa, this chapter tied up many loose ends from the earlier versions, spooling forward in the original story to the final Armageddon. Akira now leads the demon-hunting Devilman Army, while a traumatized Miki wanders through a Tokyo in the grip of apocalyptic violence and rapine. Exploiting Akira’s somewhat schizophrenic position as a force of good possessed by the ultimate evil, Amon is a vicious, sadistic anime in the spirit of Urotsukidoji, and even features a one-on-one fight between Devilman and Satan.

The epilogue to all the Devilman stories was written in 1973 (only a year after the original manga) in Nagai’s Violence Jack, which begins with a remorseful Satan’s decision to remake the world, to reincarnate as a cripple, and to create the Slum King to punish himself, though this relationship is not apparent in the 1986 anime version. In 2000, an issue of the Demon Lord Dante manga that inspired Devilman was released as a “manga video.” LNV

Dezaki, Osamu

1943– . Born in Tokyo, he found work with Toshiba after graduating from high school, subsequently leaving that company to join Mushi Production in 1963 as a key animator on Astro Boy. He founded the company Art Fresh in 1964 with his elder brother Tetsu and Gisaburo Sugii before going freelance in 1967. Subsequently, he became a key figure at Madhouse. His works embrace many genres, including the sport of Aim for the Ace, the children’s drama of Nobody’s Boy, and the medical thriller Black Jack. A distinctive feature of many Dezaki anime is the sudden use of freeze-frames, interpolated as single illustrations—this has often been regarded as a budget-saving device, but is a deliberate stylistic decision by a director who wants the audience to focus on single key moments. As the director of Golgo 13, Dezaki was also the first in the anime business to experiment with digital animation.

Dezaki, Tetsu

1940– . Sometimes miscredited, even in official studio documents, as Satoshi Dezaki. Born in Tokyo, he was a writer and storyboarder on anime including Attack No. One and Star of the Giants. A co-founder of the studio Art Fresh in 1964 with his younger brother Osamu and Gisaburo Sugii, he later moved into directing, with works including Grey: Digital Target. He also directed an animated opening sequence to Gerry Anderson’s puppet show Terrahawks (see Thunderbirds 2086), which was only used on the Japanese broadcast.

Diamond Daydreams *

2004. jpn: Kita e Diamond Dust Drops. aka: To The North, On to the North, Diamond Dust Drops. TV series. dir: Bob Shirahata. scr: Mari Okada, Ryota Yamaguchi. des: Michinori Chiba. ani: Studio Deen. mus: Takehito Itsukita. prd: Studio Deen, Red, AT-X. 24 mins. x 13 eps.

Six separate stories of women from teens to twentysomethings, whose lives converge as a result of strange events on the northern island of Hokkaido. Most are looking for love, like Atsuko the Hakodate fishmonger betrothed to a local hotelier’s heir but struggling with her feelings for a record-collecting slacker, or Karin, a Tokyo girl hospitalized in Kitami for the last two years, but refusing life-saving surgery because she hasn’t trusted doctors since her father’s death. It’s also a travelogue of the region and features many well known tourist sights and local brands, with the separate strands coming together in the final episode for a magical denouement in Hokkaido’s capital city of Sapporo. The titular “diamond dust” is a rare arctic weather phenomenon describable in strict meteorological terms as a fog or low-lying cloud of ice crystals. It can occur anywhere with prolonged subzero temperatures, but has entered Hokkaido folklore as a form of lucky charm, said to grant lifelong happiness to anyone who sees it—or perhaps a lump of tourist-colonial hokum designed to keep people coming to the northern island even when it’s bitterly cold. This dating sim-based anime concentrates less on the dating angle than on the individual stories of the girls themselves; compare to Kanon. Although based on a PS2 game by Oji Hiroi, the inspirations for this franchise lie further back in the long-running live-action TV series From the North (*DE), which came to a highly publicized end in 2002 after over twenty years as a mainstay of Japanese TV drama. Similar scenic inspirations informed Saikano.

Diary of Anne Frank

1979. jpn: Anne no Nikki: Anne Frank Monogatari. aka: Diary of Anne: Story of Anne Frank. TV special, movie. dir: Eiji Okabe. scr: Ryuzo Nakanishi. des: Yu Noda. ani: Seiji Endo. mus: Koichi Sakata. prd: Nippon Animation, Transarts, Tomi Pro, Studio Orc, TV Asahi. 82 mins. (TVm), 102 mins. (m).

In 1940, Amsterdam is occupied by the Nazis. Persecuted for their Jewish faith, the Frank family is forced into hiding in a secret annex concealed in a canal-side house. The young daughter Anne begins to write down her thoughts in a diary, escaping from her situation by writing fantastic stories. Eventually, the family is discovered by the Nazis and taken away to a concentration camp.

This earnest but pretentious TV movie about the famous diarist uses four of Anne’s stories (published as Tales from the Secret Annex) as interludes to break the monotony of her confinement: Fear, The Wise Dwarf, Henrietta, and The Adventure of Bralee the Bear Cub. Such a decision may have made cinematic sense, but it somehow trivializes Anne’s plight. After the broadcast of this film, a child’s viewpoint becomes a regular feature in anime about WWII, since it permits the use of Japanese characters who, like the baby-boom audience itself, had no part in the war that so dramatically altered the course of their country’s history.

A second anime version was released in Japanese theaters in 1995, directed by Akinori Nagaoka. This production, from KSS and the Madhouse studio, was much more lavish than the original TV movie, featuring more realistic character designs from Yoshinori Kanemori and music by Michael Nyman, composer for The Piano. This film, minus its Nyman score, was released in French as Le Journal d’Anne Frank on DVD with English subtitles.

Digi Charat

1999. TV series. dir: Hiroaki Sakurai, Masayuki Kojima, Tatsuo Sato. scr: N/C. des: Yoshiki Yamagawa. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Madhouse, TBS. 5 mins. x 16 eps. (TV1), 20 mins. x 4 eps. (Summer Special), 48 mins. (Christmas Special), ? mins. x 4 eps. (Hanami Special), ca. 22 mins. x 4 eps. (Summer Holiday Special), 20 mins. (Trip), 6 mins. 40 secs. x 48 eps. (Panyo Panyo), 15 mins. x 8 eps. (Piyoko), 12 mins. x 104 eps. (Nyo).

Adorning merchandise and commercials as the mascot character for the Gamers chain of stores in Japan, the cartoon ten-year-old Digiko is reputedly from the planet Digicarrot, from whence she was enticed to Earth by her love of broccoli. Landing with her friends in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, she takes a job at a Gamers store with her friend Puchi Charat and leporine rival Rabi En-rose. Difficult customers and occasional adventures follow. Shown as part of the Wonderful anthology television show.

A four-part DC: Summer Special (2000) pits Digiko against new nemeses from the Black Gamer Gang, whose poverty-stricken leader Piyoko intends to kidnap her and hold her for ransom. The Black Gamers open their own shop in competition with Digiko’s own, though they use sinister means to keep their customers. Digiko also appeared in cameos in Pia Carrot, Excel Saga, and First Kiss Story.

A terminally cute eight-part video sequel, Leave it to Piyoko (Piyoko
ni Omakase Piyo, 2003) offered little plotting or intelligent scripting, just childlike candyfloss characters looking perky and sweet and doing their best to sell more merchandise. Similar antics awaited in the DC Christmas Special (2000), in which the cast relocates to a cruise liner. The cast later appeared in several seasonal cash-ins including the springtime DC: O-hanami Special (2001), a four-parter in which they partied beneath cherry blossoms, the four-part DC Summer Holiday Special (2001), in which Digiko visits America, competes in a band competition and goes hiking in the mountains. Digi Charat appeared in her own 25-minute “movie,” DC: A Trip to the Planet (2001), in which she made a return visit to her homeworld, before returning to TV screens in the prequel Panyo Panyo DC (2002) and the 104-episode remake DC: Nyo (2003). Note that although each episode had only one opening and closing credit sequence, it was often split into two distinct stories, leading some sources to list it as 104 episodes.

Digi Girl Pop

2003. aka: Strawberry & Pop Mixed Flavor. TV series. dir: Taro Yamada. scr: Kuniaki Kasahara, Motoki Yoshimura, Reiko Yoshida. des: Asaki. ani: Hajime Kurihara. mus: N/C. prd: Kazutaka Ito, GDH, HoriPro, Pioneer, Kid’s Station. 25 mins. x 26 eps.

Based on a web Flash cartoon originated by Ooz Grafisch and Two Thousand Creators.com, these are the wacky and extremely brief adventures of a cute, pink-haired, perky girl robot who fell from the sky and was taken in by Nail, a girl who owns a nail salon. She starts going to high school and causes domestic and social mayhem.

Digimon *

1999. jpn: Digimon Adventure. aka: Digital Monsters. TV series. dir: Mamoru Hosoda, Hiroyuki Kadono, Takashi Imamura, Tetsuo Imazawa. scr: Satoru Nishizono, Hiro Masaki. des: Kappei Nakatsuru. ani: Hiroki Shibata. mus: Takanori Arisawa. prd: Toei. 20 mins. x 54 eps. (TV1), 3 x 25 mins. (m); 20 mins. x 50 eps. (02), 20 mins. x 51 eps. (Tamers), 20 mins. x 50 eps. (Frontier-TV), 40 mins. (Frontier-m); 30 mins. (Diablomon Strikes Back), 30 mins. (Runaway Express), 30 mins. (X-Evolution).

Goggle-wearing hero Taichi (Tai) and friends Izzy, Joe, Matt, Mimi, and Sora are at a summer camp like no other, where snow can fall in June and the Northern Lights appear far from the Arctic. The pals fall through a magic portal into the very different world on the pink sandy beaches of File Island, where they become embroiled in a battle between strange creatures. The kindly “digi[tal] mon[sters]” that inhabit the parallel world are being corrupted by an evil force, who inserts Black Gears into good digimon to turn them bad. As the children try to solve the mystery, their digimon companions “digivolve” into better and stronger fighters.

After a handover engineered one of the three holiday special minifeatures (2000, cut together for U.S. release as the Digimon Movie), a second season followed, rebranded as Digimon 02 and set three years later, with the return of the evil Devilmon in control of a powerful new energy source. Our heroes, who attend the same soccer club with the gang from the first series, team up with a new digital monster, the blue Buimon, to fight back. A third series, renamed Digimon Tamers, began in April 2001, moving the action into the “near-future” year of 200X. This was followed by Digimon Frontier (2002), in which five all-new children were chosen to fight the evil Cherubimon, which is intent on destroying the world. This was followed by Digimon Savers (2006), in which more of the same ensued.

Numerous further Digimon “movies,” often mere episode-length screenings at summer roadshows, have made the Digimon franchise even more confusing than it already was. These include The Runaway Digimon Express (2002), and Diablomon Strikes Back (2005). New toys were introduced in Digimon: X-Evolution (2005), which utilized elements of Norse mythology alongside a “virtual world” setup more similar to that employed in .hack.

Optioned for U.S. release in the post-Pokémon gold rush, Digimon was inadvertently one of the most faithful translations of TV anime; the U.S. and Japanese schedules were so close together that there was little opportunity to do too much rewriting or cutting. Technically speaking, as the descendants of the original virtual pets featured in Tamagotchi Video Adventures, Digimon have a better pedigree than Pokémon, despite only achieving about half the latter’s ratings. The series was also dogged by legal wrangles in the U.S., when the Screen Actors Guild challenged production company Saban over the rights to residuals for the Digimon movie. The irony was not in SAG’s claim that voice acting was a creative, skilled task that warranted better conditions, but that they had never brought it up before.

Digital Devil Story *

1987. jpn: Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. aka: DDS: Goddess Reborn. Video. dir: Mizuho Nishikubo. scr: Mizuho Nishikubo. des: Hiroyuki Kitazume. ani: Naoyuki Onda. mus: Usagi-gumi. prd: Tokuma Shoten, Animate. 45 mins.

Computer geek Tamami uses the school’s computer center to summon the “digital devil” Loki, soon enlisting teachers and fellow students in a dark cult. Only new-girl Yumiko is unaware of this secret, though she soon discovers that she is the reincarnation of an ancient goddess and, consequently, the only person who can put an end to Loki’s violent rampages.

Based on a novel by Aya Nishitani and featuring character designs by original illustrator Hiroyuki Kitazume, this inferior horror anime enjoyed an inferior British release, using the original spotting list from Kiseki, which retains the Japanese translator’s creative romanizations of otherwise well-known mythological creatures, including Loki and Set. In Japan, it was screened on a theatrical double bill with I Give My All. The story was also adapted into a computer game, which in turn was adapted into another anime, Tokyo Revelation. NV

Dioxin Summer

2001. jpn: Inochi no Chikyu: Dioxin no Natsu. aka: Life’s World: Summer of the Dioxin. Movie. dir: Tetsu Dezaki. scr: Kazuo Koide. des: Setsuko Shibunnoichi. ani: Setsuko Shibunnoichi, Keizo Shimizu. mus: N/C. prd: Sotsu Agency, Sunrise. ca. 85 mins.

The true story of an accident in Italy in 1976, when an explosion at a biological research laboratory threatened the surrounding area with deadly dioxins and ruined the happy existence of a group of 11-year-old children. Adapted from a book by Kei Hasumi. Compare to Sea of the Ticonderoga.

Dirty Pair *

1985. TV series, movie, video. dir: Katsuyoshi Yatabe, Toshifumi Takizawa, Tsukasa Dokite, Norio Kabeshima, Masaharu Okuwaki, Koichi Mashimo. scr: Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, Kazunori Ito, Tsukasa Tsunaga, Haruka Takachiho, Yasushi Hirano, Fuyunori Gobu, Masa­aki Sakurai, Go Sakamoto. des: Tsukasa Dokite, Fujihiko Hosono, Yoshito Asari, Katsuhiko Nishijima, Studio Nue. ani: Kazuo Tomisawa, Tsukasa Dokite. mus: Toshiyuki Kimori, Yoshihiro Kunimoto. prd: Nippon Sunrise, Studio Nue, Nippon TV. 25 mins. x 26 eps. (TV) 50 mins. x 3 eps. (v), 80 mins. (m), 25 mins. x 10 eps. (Original), 30 mins. x 16 eps. (DPF videos).

Kei and Yuri are the “Lovely Angels,” Trouble Consultants for the World’s Welfare Work Association (3WA), a federal police force that serves the United Galactica government. Wearing skintight spacesuits that happen to be almost completely transparent (thereby looking just like bikinis) and accompanied by their “pet” ursoid Mughi and R2D2 clone Nammo, the girls are sent on missions that often end in massive explosions and collateral damage, resulting in the unkind nickname of the “Dirty Pair.”

At the time they first appeared onscreen in the anime adaptation of Haruka Takachiho’s Crusher Joe, the Dirty Pair had already featured in two novels of their own, including The Great Adventures of DP, which won the Seiun (Japanese Nebula) Award. The year after their anime debut, the characters won another Seiun for the book DP Strike Back. They were named for one of the author’s favorite female wrestling teams, the Beauty Pair, while the 3WA is a reference to the World Women’s Wrestling Association. The real-life Beauty Pair inspired many imitators in the wrestling field, including the Black Pair, Golden Pair, and Queen Angels—a roster that influenced several other series, including Maris the Chojo and Metal Fighter Miku.

Designer Dokite adapted Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s illustrations from the original novels, the third of which was timed to come out simultaneously with the debut show. Though the series was canceled early after 24 episodes, the last two parts were immediately rushed out onto video in 1985 as DP: From Lovely Angels With Love. The franchise stayed on video with DP: Affair on Nolandia (1985), directed by Okuwaki and written by Patlabor’s Ito, in which the girls are sent to an arboreal planet where they must stop an illegal genetic experiment. Nolandia is notable for being the only occasion in the entire anime adventures that alludes to Kei and Yuri’s telepathic abilities, a major feature of the novels.

The 1987 DP movie, known in the U.S. as DP: Project Eden, pastiched Frank Herbert’s Dune by revealing that warp travel is impossible without the rare metal vizorium. Sent to planet Agerna to stop two rival nations from destroying each other in a war over the element, the girls meet Professor Wattsman, a scientist intent on using vizorium to bring forth a powerful new life form. The same year saw the publication The Great Adventures of DP in English, but the duo’s greatest impact on the U.S. market came in 1988 with the publication of the first of many American DP comics produced by Toren Smith and Adam Warren.

Though it would be several more years before the movie and video versions of DP would reach the U.S. through Streamline Pictures, the original TV series sold well in Europe, and ten extra shows were made in 1989 specifically to bulk out the TV run to 36 episodes for the Italian market. Stuck straight onto two-part videos in the Japanese market as DP Wink, Masterworks, Complete, Mystery, Birth, Special, Variety, Investigation, First Final, and Last Fantasy, these “bonus” episodes were released abroad by AD Vision as Original DP; the distributor’s argument being that although they were not the initial (untranslated) TV series, they were still truer to the original than DP Flash (see below).

The video DP Flight 005 Conspiracy (1990) concentrated less on zany antics and more on a serious thriller story, as the pair are sent to investigate a space liner explosion that kills 300 passengers, though nobody attempts to claim insurance. It was to be the last anime outing to date for the original Kei and Yuri.

Takachiho would revise the characters in 1994 for DP Flash, which portrayed the Lovely Angels as younger, dumber, cuter investigators rendered in sharper (and cheaper) animation. Though many (including the production staff!) often assume DPF to be a flashback to the characters’ early years, it is actually set over a century later, starring young girls called Kei and Yuri, who look very similar to the originals but are only the latest in a series of duos to use the code name. These two new Lovely Angels undo all the good work done by the last holders of the title (Molly and Iris, some 15 years earlier), returning the code name to infamy.

Despite this convoluted backstory, DPF struggles to recreate the fun of the original. With a complex numbering system obscuring one long succession of stand-alone episodes (there is no “story arc” worth repeating in the “serials” separately named DPF1, 2, and 3), the characters of DPF spend very little time investigating, preferring instead to parody other anime with a visit to a 20th-century theme park or to experience minor difficulties in their attempts to have a vacation. The DPF video adventures play up the girls’ eye-candy qualities (admittedly, not entirely absent in the appeal of the original), giving them nude transformation sequences and missions such as winning a volleyball tournament, designed as little more than an excuse to spool through a line of sports-show training clichés, leavened with regular wobbles of fan-service cleavage. But while Takachiho’s originals continue in their novel form with the most recent DP: A Legend of Dictator, DP’s most successful incarnation abroad remains the U.S. comic rather than the anime that inspired it. N

Dirty Thoughts *

2003. jpn: Private Emotion. Video. dir: Sosuke Kokubunji. scr: Sosuke Kokubunji. des: Hirotaka. ani: Takayuki Yanase. mus: Yoshitaka Shiro. prd: Dream Entertainment, Studio March, Milky, Museum Pictures. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

Forced to leave her previous school after her lesbian relationship with a pupil was exposed, Sayaka takes a new post in a new town. However, when her principal discovers her secret, he uses it as a means of blackmailing her into sex with him. Based on the computer game Private Emotion. LNV

Discovery Series *

1998. Video. dir: Hideki Takayama, Yoshitaka Makino, Yusaku Saotome, Yu Yahagi, Juhachi Minamisawa. scr: Masateru Tsuruoka, Hajime Yamaguchi, Yu Yahagi, Joichi Michigami. des: Masahiro Sekiguchi, Takanari Hijo, Tomo’o Shintani. ani: Hirota Shindo, Koichi Fuyukawa, Masahiro Sekiguchi. mus: Kazuhiko Izu, Hiroaki Sano, Takeshi Nishizawa. prd: Discovery. 30 mins. x 7 eps. (Maiden of); 2 eps. (Baby Bird); 4 eps. (Necronomicon); 4 eps. (Triangle Heart); 4 eps. (True Snow); 14 eps. (Night Shift Nurses); 3 eps. (Blood Shadow); 3 eps. (F-Force); 2 eps. (Maison Plaisir); 3 eps. (Slave Market); 2 eps. (Black Widow); 3 eps. (Sibling Secret); 2 eps. (Blood Royale); 2 eps. (Xtra Credit); 3 eps. (Nurse Me); 2 eps. (Stepsister); 4 eps. (TH: Sweet Songs Forever); 1 ep (Shrike); 2 eps. (Swallowtail Inn); 2 eps. (Temptation); 2 eps. (Pigeon Blood); 1 ep (Fiendish Face); 2 eps. (Newscaster Etsuko); 2eps (Tokineiro); 2 eps. (Panties Teacher); 1 ep (New Gymnastics).

As Cream Lemon, Secret Anima and the Vanilla Series have already amply demonstrated, the demands of the erotic market revolve around shorter cycles than television. Whereas anime for the children’s market can repeat itself every two years without much chance of complaint, and anime for teenagers often follows a similar lengthy rotation of ideas, pornography’s aims are far lower. For it to work, it need only entertain its target consumer, often a renter rather than a buyer, for half an hour. This entry consolidates the multitude of separate titles that originate with the Discovery label, although many already have entries elsewhere in this book, particularly if they have received an English-language release.

Beginning in 1998 with the Maiden of… series, Discovery established an early reputation for plots revolving around dominance and submission. Song of the Baby Bird (2000, Hinadori no Saezuri) was not originally part of the Maiden of… series, but sold in the U.S. as Maiden of Deliverance. It also capitalized on the growing popularity of interactive media by investing in lengthy adaptations of computer games, such as its second big release, Mystery of the Necronomicon. Triangle Heart was followed in 2000 by True Snow the Color of Lapis Lazuli (Shin Ruri-iro no Yuki), another computer game adaptation that centers on a scientifically-minded inventor who finds himself having to share his life with Yuki, a spirit-girlfriend who owes a certain debt to the “Snow Princess” of Japanese Folk Tales, with elements of Oh My Goddess!. The same year also saw the first episode of Discovery’s most popular and long-running release, Night Shift Nurses—hospitalization being an excellent excuse for the domination and bodily invasion that often seem to be a Discovery trademark.

More game adaptations followed in 2001 with Blood Shadow (itself seeming to be based on a pastiche of Sakura Wars) and F-Force. In 2002, the company appeared to move even further into the niche territory of scatology and submission, with Maison Plaisir and Slave Market. It also developed what may have been a coincidental theme of exploiting lonely widows, following Maison Plaisir with Black Widow.

Inevitably, incest would also form a part of the Discovery series, arriving in 2002 with Sibling Secret, while themes of bondage and imprisonment would recur in Blood Royale and Xtra Credit. Incest and computer game tie-ins met in the form of Stepsister. The company also experimented with a new hospital franchise in the form of Nurse Me!.

Five years after the company began releasing erotica, the first new title of 2003 was a sequel to the original Triangle Heart, called Sweet Songs Forever. The company released a rare one-shot release, Shrike (Mozu no Nie), which may have been a deliberate decision, or a historical anomaly created by a title that failed to generate good sales in relation to ongoing series like Night Shift Nurses. The story was a historical vignette in which a kimono-clad princess is molested by her stepbrother. However, the historical setting cannot have handicapped sales of Shrike too badly, since it was immediately followed by Swallowtail Inn, another tale with an old-fashioned look, which ran for two episodes. The same year saw a return to campus tales with Temptation and more domination in Pigeon Blood, in which the amnesiac Chris wakes up to discover he is a “slave master” charged with breaking in new acquisitions. He encounters a girl called Rita on one of his trips into town, and he succumbs to her pleas to enter his house and be trained as one of his slaves.

In 2004, the company adapted Fiendish Face (Masho no Kao), a manga title from “Mink,” the games company behind Night Shift Nurses. In it, a teenager returning home from school finds the archetypal “mysterious girl” in his room, who turns out to be his stepsister Reika, with whom he is soon playing toilet games. It also parodied the TV journalism genre so beloved of live-action television, with Newscaster Etsuko (Hana no Joshi Ana: Newscaster Etsuko), in which a reporter for Tokyo’s “Flower TV,” Etsuko Yamanobe, chases stories while fretting about holes in her underwear—compare to Nine O’Clock Woman. The same year saw Sensual Ticking Time (Tokineiro), in which “I,” yet another amnesiac protagonist, wakes up in a remote wintry mansion, where time runs differently and four sobbing maids await his attentions. Discovery returned to school voyeurism with Panties Teacher (Panchira Teacher) in which politician’s daughter Machiko attempts to teach classes of teenagers while wearing an inappropriately short skirt—possibly an oblique reference to the old series Shame on Miss Machiko.

In 2005, Discovery turned its attention to high school sports, with Rhythmic Gymnastics (Shintaiso—Makoto aka New Gymnastics), billed, in a strange crossover between companies, as a sequel to Pink Pineapple’s Princess 69. However, it seems that nothing quite compares to the love of Discovery’s viewers for more stories in the Night Shift Nurses series, the latest episode of which (billed as episode one of NSN3) was also released in 2005, and marked Discovery’s 77th anime release. LNV

Disgaea *

2006. jpn: Makai Senki Disgaea. aka: Netherworld Battle Chronicle Disgaea. TV series. dir: Kiyotaka Isako. scr: Atsuhiro Tomioka. des: Akira Kano. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Oriental Light and Magic. 25 mins. x 12 eps.

Laharl, self-centered son of the king of the Netherworld, wakes up from a two-year coma to find his land in turmoil after the death of his father. He begins the struggle to retake his birthright, in an adaptation of the game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, published by Nihon Ichi.

Dispatches from the Spirit World

1996. jpn: Jigoku Reikai Tsushin. aka: Spiritual Report: Occult Shop from Hell. Video. dir: Junichi Sato. scr: Miyuki Takahashi. des: Akihito Maejima. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Toei. 23 mins. x 2 eps.

Three young boys are chased by a ghost and run to an occult shop for help. There, they are given a selection of magical items that will allow them to send malevolent spirits back to hell. After successfully dealing with their initial assailant, they go into business as professional ghostbusters, righting wrongs all over Tokyo.

Beginning as a best-selling children’s book by Karin Kagetsu and illustrated by Akihito Maejima, this Ghostbusters rip-off became a live-action film directed by Be-Bop High School’s Hiroyuki Nasu in 1996. Controversial for introducing scary themes in what was supposedly a children’s film, the live version was refused a general rating, and its original target audience was forced to settle for the anime.

Divergence Eve *

2003. TV series. dir: Hiroshi Negishi, Atsushi Takada. scr: Toru Nozaki. des: Toshinari Yamashita, Takayuki Takeya, Tatsuya Tomosugi. ani: Toshinari Yamashita. mus: Yousuke Hoga. prd: Plasma, Radix, AT-X. 25 mins. x 13 eps. (TV1), 25 mins. x 13 eps. (TV2).

In the year 2317, interstellar travel takes place via gates that pass through a parallel universe, unfortunately leaving travelers open to attacks from the other-dimensional inhabitants known as Ghouls. At the Watcher’s Nest, a space station that watches over the far end of the jump from Saturn’s moon Titan, rookie Misaki Kureha and her big-eyed, large-breasted associates are in training to become pilots in the elite Seraphim Squadron. What begins as a silly sci-fi adventure about pneumatic space bimbos soon changes direction radically, incorporating conspiracies redolent of writer Nozaki’s earlier Gasaraki and elements of Ridley Scott’s Alien, as Misaki and some new, artificial associates discover more about the nature of the savage Ghouls and their conflict with humanity.

Divine Changeling Enchantment

1988. jpn: Shinshu Sudamahen. aka: Fantasy Kingdom War. Video. dir: Tetsu Dezaki. scr: Tetsuaki Imaizumi, Kazumi Koide. des: Keizo Shimizu. ani: Keizo Shimizu. mus: Yukari Omori. prd: Magic Bus. 30 mins. x 6 eps.

In medieval Japan’s Genroku era, the young warrior Yoshiyasu Yanasawa approaches Takaharu, the leader of the Hazuki clan in search of the power of the “Golden Dragon,” unaware that the power of the dragon flows within the very bloodstream of the maiden Orie. The quest broadens out into a fight over a line of gold ore in the Nasu mountains, and the Tokugawa lord Tsunayoshi learns of the Golden Dragon’s magical powers when he tries to rape Orie. The samurai Kageshichiro Hagetsu tries to dispel Tsunayoshi’s evil spirit before it awakens the dragon completely and brings chaos to Japan. The animated version of a period drama by Tsuneo Tani.

Director Dezaki also made the two-part spin-off series, Cold Moon Spirit Cutter (1989), a samurai-era detective saga starring the popular supporting character Itto Kanzuki, who has a constant quest to help those in need. NV

DNA Hunter *

2002. Video. dir: Takeshi Masui. scr: Hayato Nakamura, Mankyu Mizoguchi. des: MIE. ani: MIE. mus: N/C. prd: Blue Cat, Five Ways. 30 mins. x 3 eps.

Distraught at the death of her fiancé in a climbing accident, Mai seeks help from his place of employment, a clandestine sperm bank whose clients are rich women in search of the best quality donors. Mai wants to have a baby by her dead lover, but cannot afford the clinic’s extremely high rates. Instead, she is offered the chance to become a DNA Hunter, an agent who secretly harvests genetic material from unsuspecting celebrities, so that it can be sold to the highest bidder. The result is an innovative excuse for the picaresque sexual encounters of typical anime porn and an unfolding conspiracy story line that makes this show more than the sum of its parts—compare to Sexorcist, which was another rare entry in the sci-fi erotica genre, and DNA², of which this seems to be a pastiche. N

DNA Sights 999.9 *

1997. jpn: Fire Force Danasight Four-Nine. Video. dir: Takeshi Shirato, Masayuki Kojima. scr: Tatsuhiko Urahata. des: Leiji Matsumoto. ani: Aki Tsunaki. mus: Katsuo Ono. prd: Madhouse. 45 mins.

After Earth is devastated in an apocalyptic meteor shower, it is taken over by a military cartel calling itself the Trader Forces, which is secretly supplied by an alien woman called Photon. A second woman, Mellow, “casts her cosmic consciousness” at Earth, where it crashes in 2024 with the impact of another meteorite. Daiba, a local boy, investigates the crash site but is arrested by the Traders. Contacted telepathically by Mellow, he is told that he, an Earth girl called Rei, and a third party whom they will have to find themselves (who turns out to be a cat) are all examples of the next stage in evolution. Aided by Mellow, the three must overthrow the Traders.

“This contains the essence of all my previous works. It’s a space opera that also focuses on Earth’s environmental problems,” said creator Leiji Matsumoto at the time of this anime’s release; neatly sidestepping the issue of yet another rewrite of his standard character templates reusing ideas and imagery from his Galaxy Express 999 and Queen Emeraldas.

There are a few new ideas, such as the magma-dwelling “underlife” creatures briefly encountered, but essentially this is a run-of-the-mill teen adventure using familiar-looking characters in an attempt to drag in longer-standing fans of Matsumoto’s other work. That was certainly the way it was sold in Japan, where press releases could not resist hinting that both Captain Harlock and the Yamato spaceship from Star Blazers would make cameo appearances.

DNA2 *

1994. jpn: DNA2 (Dokokade Nakushita Aitsuno Aitsu). aka: (Dumb Nerd Always Astray). TV series. dir: Junichi Sakata. scr: Tatsuhiko Urahata. des: Kumiko Takahashi, Masakazu Katsura, Takeshi Koike. ani: N/C. mus: Eiji Takano. prd: Powhouse, Nippon TV. 25 mins. x 12 eps. (TV), 25 mins. x 3 eps. (v).

Junta Momonari is a hapless boy with a real complex about sex—the merest thought of it makes him physically sick. But one day he will become a Mega-Playboy, siring 100 equally fecund children, and agent Karin Aoi is sent back from the future to stop his genes from causing an uncontrollable baby boom. Unluckily for her, she shoots him with the wrong drug and ends up creating the very Mega-Playboy she was sent back to prevent.

Despite the popularity of similar boy-meets-dozen-girls shows like Tenchi Muyo!, this adaptation of Video Girl Ai–creator Masakazu Katsura’s 1994 Shonen Jump manga underperformed in its anime incarnation. Even though DNA2 contains all the elements thought to guarantee success, including a geeky-Jekyll-and-macho-Hyde subplot as Junta’s playboy persona takes periodic control of his body and libido, the series was taken off the air early and ignominiously forced to finish its run on video. With revisionist hindsight, the video episodes were shuffled among the actual TV episodes and now comprise the second, third, and final chapters in the 15-chapter (5-tape) series available in Japanese stores. It was parodied in the pornographic computer game Timestripper, and is much imitated in anime such as DNA Hunter and Dokuro-chan. N

DNAngel *

2003. aka: D.N.A. TV series. dir: Koji Yoshikawa, Nobuyoshi Habara. scr: Naruhisa Arakawa. des: Shinichi Yamaoka, Yasuhiro Moriki. ani: Hideyuki Motohashi, Shinichi Yamaoka. mus: Takahito Eguchi, Tomoki Hasegawa. prd: Dentsu, Kadokawa, TV Tokyo, Xebec. 25 mins. x 26 eps.

Daisuke Niwa is fourteen and in love, but when he tries to declare himself to his dream girl Risa Harada and she gives him the “good friends” brush-off, he suddenly transforms into the legendary “phantom thief” Dark Mousy. Successive transformations plague Daisuke every time he gets emotional about the object of his affections. Meanwhile, not only does his mother seem to accept this transformation as a normal family event, she makes Dark steal rare works of art for a purpose Daisuke can’t even guess at. His classmate Hiwatari has made it his mission to catch Dark—and just when it seems things could hardly get worse, so has Risa, who much prefers the glamorous, exciting young thief to her shy, inept classmate. Meanwhile, Risa’s twin sister Riku decides Daisuke is the one for her. Based on Yukiri Sugisaki’s 1997 manga that combined the thievery of Lupin III with the transformations of Conan the Boy Detective. Like many other romantic anime of the early 21st century, it focuses less on love itself than on means of coping with rejection—compare to Koi Kaze.

Doctor Chichibuyama

1988. Video. dir: Tetsuro Amino, Masa Watanabe. scr: Yoshio Urasawa. des: Yutaka Kawasuji. ani: Yutaka Kawasuji. mus: The Chichibuyama Band. prd: Studio Ship, Pony Canyon, Ashi Pro, Fuji TV. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

In this short-lived black comedy based on a 1983 manga by Keiichi Tanaka originally serialized in Comic Gekiga Murajuku, Dr. Chichibuyama, the perverse, sunglasses-wearing head of a hospital way out in the mountains, terrorizes patients with the help of his lover and a sexy young nurse. Though the manga rode the fad of “Lolita Complex” titles typified by Cream Lemon, the anime version appeared at the end of the boom and failed to ignite much interest. Two five-minute sections were broadcast on Fuji TV’s midnight All Night Fuji program, presumably to promote the video. N

Doctor Dolittle

1990. jpn: Dolittle Sensei Monogatari. aka: Stories of Doctor Dolittle. Video. dir: Seiji Okuda. scr: N/C. des: Tom Ray. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Knack, My Video. 48 mins. x 3 eps.

Hugh Lofting’s children’s story about a doctor who could genuinely talk to the animals was animated here in a U.S.-Japan coproduction featuring input from designer Tom Ray, who worked on famous Western cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and The Pink Panther.

Doctor Fabre the Detective

2000. jpn: Fabre Sensei wa Meitantei. aka: Dr. Fabre Is a Famous Detective; Inspector Fabre. TV series. dir: Osamu Nakamura, Masami Yoshikawa. scr: Osamu Nakamura. des: N/C. ani: Nobuteru Tanaka, Masashi Shiozawa, Scott Frazier. mus: N/C. prd: Enoki Film, IG Film. 25 mins. x 26 eps.

The adventures of a detective modeled on Sherlock Holmes but dwelling in 19th-century Paris, where he solves mysteries centering around the Great Exhibition, the invention of cinema, and other new developments, rubbing shoulders with the famous people of the age in the manner of Young Indiana Jones. A fittingly fin-de-siècle mixture of the detective boom of the Young Kindaichi Files with the new retro craze of Tree in the Sun.

Doctor Mambo and Jibako the Thief

1982. jpn: Doctor Mambo to Kaiketsu Jibaki: Uchu yori Ai o Komete. aka: Doctor Mambo and Jibako the Thief: From Space with Love. TV special. dir: Yoshio Yabuki. scr: Akinori Matsubara. des: Toyoo Ashida. ani: Kiichiro Suzuki. mus: Kazuo Sugita. prd: Toei, Fuji TV. 84 mins.

In this one-shot adaptation of one of Morio Kita’s Dr. Mambo SF novels, the dashing Dr. Mambo and his unlikely sidekick, Jibako the thief, help Princess Laura, former ruler of Eden, regain her birthright from the usurping President Capo.

Doctor Shameless *

2003. jpn: Chijoku Shinsatsushitsu. aka: Shameful Surgery. Video. dir: Ken Raikaken. scr: Rokurota Makabe. des: P-zo Honda. ani: Yuya Soma. mus: Salad. prd: Deluxe. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

Dr. Kyozaburo Nagatsuka’s private hospital is failing when young Dr. Shinji Ishida comes looking for a job. Shinji is credited with turning many failing hospitals around, but he insists he must have a free hand to use any methods. His chosen methods are sex and humiliation; he gets female patients under his spell and effects remarkable “cures,” resulting in return visits, recommendations, and more income for the hospital. He discovers that one of the nurses is not a licensed medical practitioner but a moonlighting sex worker and offers the same therapy to male patients, and the practice is soon thriving. Compare to Nurse Me!. LNV

Doctor Slump

1981. jpn: Doctor Slump and Arale-chan. TV series/special, movie. dir: Minoru Okazaki, Yoshiki Shibata, Daisuke Nishio, Akinori Nagaoka. scr: Masaki Tsuji, Shunichi Yukimuro, Tomoko Konparu, Michiru Shimada. des: Shinji Koike. ani: Shinji Koike. mus: Takeo Watanabe. prd: Fuji TV, Toei. 25 mins. x 243 eps., 90 mins. (m), 52 mins., 48 mins., 38 mins. (m), 25 mins. x 26? eps. (TV).

In the wacky hamlet of Penguin Village, Dr. Senbe “Slump” Norimaki decides to put together the perfect robot woman from data collected in pop idol photos and porno mags. Instead of perfection, he ends up with Arale-chan, a bespectacled and inquisitive tyke with superhuman strength, and the odd couple get into many wacky adventures. They are helped in their quest for the weird by Slump’s penchant for crazy inventions, such as time machines, quantum cloning devices, an invisible gun, and X-Ray spectacles.

Akira Toriyama’s original 1980 manga ran in Shonen Jump for 18 volumes. This anime version came about after an abortive attempt at a live-action show made producers realize that the only way to capture the cartoony spirit of the original was by making a cartoon. The other occupants of Penguin Village provide a menagerie of amusing characters in the fashion of Toriyama’s later Dragon Ball, including a pig that does a rooster’s job of waking everyone up in the morning, a superhero that must eat prunes to transform, and Gatchan, a metal-eating flying creature.

Dr. Slump is one of anime’s most successful shows, scoring a massive TV rating of 36.9 at its peak (the “mega-hit” Evangelion managed a paltry 7.1). It has also been a hit abroad, particularly in the large anime markets of Hong Kong and Italy, but has yet to make it to the English language. The series also spun off several “TV specials” often premiered in theaters during summer festivals. Since the TV episodes often consisted of small vignettes, these “movies” consisted of little more than extended anthologies, like Hello! Mysterious Island (1981), which often spoofed other films of the day such as Queen of a Thousand Years (Who Is the Real Queen of a Thousand Years!?, 1981) and Don Quixote in Heroic Legend of Penguin Village (1986), which is about Slump undertaking a dangerous quest to the supermarket to get more toilet paper.

The first true DS movie, called simply Dr. Slump (1982), sends the characters on a space mission to planet Takeyasaodake, a mission loaded with parodies of the Star Wars movies, Star Blazers, and Galaxy Express 999. Later “movies” were closer in length to the TV specials they replaced, including The Great Race Around the World (1983) and The Secret Treasure of Nanaba Castle (1984), both glorified episodes at little more than 50 minutes. Though straggling TV specials would make it a lingering death, the official grand finale was Megapolis the Dream City (1985), a “movie” of only 38 minutes, in which Arale and company befriend some monsters from outer space.

The series returned for several New Year’s TV specials in 1992, although only two of the vignettes, The Tearful Film Director and The Day New Year Didn’t Arrive, were actually new; the other episodes were old DS “movies.” The franchise was properly revived in 1997, when a new TV series, without the direct involvement of Toriyama, became the first anime to use computer coloring instead of cels.

Doctor Surprise

1998. aka: Dokkiri Doctor. TV series. dir: Kazunori Mizuno. scr: Satoru Nishizono, Aya Matsui, Yoshiyuki Suga, Tsutomu Kaneko. des: Mari Kitayama. ani: Masaya Onishi, Shinsuke Terasawa, Manabu Fukusawa. mus: Yoshimoto Hizawa. prd: Visual Works, Studio Pierrot, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x
27 eps.

The prestigious Shirabara Clinic has had four previous directors since its founding in the 19th century, but none have been quite so memorable as the fifth incumbent, Haruka Nishikikoji. With a fat face, “a jaw like Frankenstein,” a gentle manner, and a genius way with patients, he’s a mad scientist working for the side of justice. Lumbered with a cute nursing assistant after the lovely Miyuki’s parents go off on a round-the-world trip, Haruka finds himself with a surrogate family, soon becoming embroiled in Miyuki’s younger sister’s trials at the local primary school. But Haruka has always carried a torch for Miyuki, although he cannot think of a way to confess his true feelings, in this lighthearted adaptation of Judge-creator Fujihiko Hosono’s original manga.

DOCUMENTARIES AND HISTORY

Although often regarded as a wholly fictional medium, anime has a documentary tradition dating back to Seitaro Kitayama’s one-reeler What to Do with Your Postal Savings (Chokin no Susume, 1917). A pioneer in this field, Kitayama also made animation segments for the film Dental Hygiene (Koku Eisei, 1922), produced by the detergent manufacturer Lion. Animation was useful for illustrating abstract concepts and the inner workings of machines—although children’s fairy tales still form the bulk of Early Anime, several are factual in basis. Notable examples include Kitayama’s Atmospheric Pressure and the Hydraulic Pump (Kiatsu to Mizuage Pump, 1921), Plant Physiology and Plant Ecology (Shokubutsu Seiri Seitai no Maki, 1922), and The Earth (Chikyu no Maki, 1922).

This “instructional” role transferred easily to propaganda purposes, used to depict scenes both accurate and otherwise in Wartime Anime such as Nippon Banzai (1943), and a prolonged sequence in Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors (1945), detailing the alleged abuses Asia had suffered at the hands of Western imperialists—the authors have yet to confirm, but we suspect the latter sequence may be a recycling of the former.

The first anime TV series, Instant History (1961), set the tone for many other educational programs by dramatizing important events. This process came to fruition in Animentary: Critical Moments (1971), Japanese History (1976), and Manga Pictures of Japan (1977). Serials of short informational films used comedic setups to convey information about law and society, in the hapless adventures of Outside the Law (1969) and the inquisitive kids of Just Another Family (1976). Animation was also used to present views of the future in Fifth Ice Age (1967) and Computopia (1968), drifting ever further from the straightforward presentation to the predictive fiction of Until the Undersea City (1969).

Inspired by similar trends in the live-action TV world, anime began to favor docudramas, particularly when, in the case of Road to Munich (1972), live-action footage was unobtainable. The biographical vignettes of Great People (1977) were the most obvious, but the use of anime was also a deliberate stylistic decision in We’re Manga Artists: Tokiwa Villa (1981), which told the life stories of several of the medium’s most famous creators. The period also saw the first flowerings of biographical and semi-biographical accounts of World War II. The Diary of Anne Frank (1979) made it possible for Japanese producers to consider productions of Barefoot Gen (1983), Grave of the Fireflies (1988), and their many imitators. Away from such war stories, instructional works became increasingly earnest, with such dreary subjects as The Story of Superconductors (1988). Meanwhile, animated inserts continued to appear in live-action programs, including The Man Who Created the Future (2003) and an obscure showing for Studio Ghibli’s Isao Takahata, who directed a brief sequence detailing watercourse operations for The Story of Yanagawa Canal (1987). Even the Japanese government has gotten involved, with the 18-minute streaming online anime Learning About Our Metropolitan Assembly (2002, Motto Shiritai Watashitachi no Togikai). Inevitably, the confessional nature of docudrama was also used to add a realistic thrill to erotica, such as G-Taste (1999) and Blue Confessions (2005).

Dodge Danpei

1991. jpn: Honoo no Tokyu Dodge Danpei. aka: Burning Dodgeball Dodge Danpei. TV series. dir: Takaaki Ishiyama. scr: Hirokazu Mizude, Takashi Yamada, Miyoko Inoue. des: Tetsuhiro Koshita. ani: Katsumi Hashimoto, Yutaka Kagawa, Kazunori Takahashi, Keitaro Mochizuki. mus: N/C. prd: Animation 21, Tokyo Agency, Shogakukan Pro, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 47 eps.

A plucky Japanese boy leads his dodgeball team to victory against a series of opponents in a sports anime based on the 1989 manga in Coro Coro Comic by Tetsuhiro Koshita, who also created Racing Brothers Lets and Go.

Dog of Flanders *

1975. jpn: Flanders no Inu. TV series, movie. dir: Yoshio Kuroda. scr: Ryuzo Nakanishi, Yoshiaki Yoshida, Shunichi Yukimuro, Tsunehisa Ito, Aki Matsushima, Yukiko Takayama, Tomohiro Ando. des: Yasuji Mori. ani: Toshikazu Sakai, Shinya Takahashi. mus: Takeo Watanabe. prd: Nippon Animation, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 52 eps., 25 mins. x 24 eps. (TV), 103 mins. (m).

In 19th-century Europe, Nello, a young Flemish boy, loves to draw and is inspired by the art of Rubens to become a painter. One day, Nello adopts the dog Patraasche and nurses the ailing animal back to health. He falls in love with the local girl Alois, whose family will never let her marry him because he is too poor. Meanwhile, his grandfather dies, and soon Nello and Patraasche are all that are left of the family. Eventually, they too die and are buried together.

Based on the 1872 book by Marie-Louise de la Ramée, an Englishwoman of French extraction who confusingly wrote under the Flemish pseudonym Oui’da Sebestyen, this miserable tale of death and despair remains much-loved for its sheer emotional extremes. With a maudlin love of sacrifice and a weepy ending in which the faithful pair freeze to death on Christmas Eve amid the majestic works of art in Bruges Cathedral, it is perhaps no surprise that it has proved so popular with the sentimental Japanese (though there have also been several live-action U.S. versions, the first as early as 1914, the most recent in 1999). This anime was the first of the World Masterpiece Theater series.

Remade as a 15-minute episode of the Manga World Fairy Tales series in 1976, DoF came back again as a 24-part TV series in 1992. This Tokyo Movie Shinsha version was directed by Kane­tsugu Kodama and “set in the small French village of Flanders,” according to one Japanese source. Not to be put out by such geographical fudging, the tale was resurrected again in 1997, this time for a lavish feature film directed by the original series’ Kuroda, with the location now officially “Belgium.” This version was released in the U.S. by Pioneer, although the distributor inexplicably removed 11 minutes of footage and the entire Japanese language track for the DVD edition.

Dog Soldier: Shadows of the Past *

1989. jpn: Dog Soldier. Video. dir: Hiroyuki Ebata. scr: Sho Aikawa. des: Masateru Kudo. ani: Motomu Sakamoto. mus: Hitomi Kuroishi. prd: Movic, Animate Film, JC Staff. 45 mins.

Japanese-American commando John Kyosuke Hiba is forced to face ghosts from his past when he is sent in to steal back an AIDS-like virus from the clutches of a criminal syndicate. His mission becomes more than simply saving the world on behalf of the Pentagon; he takes the opportunity to avenge the deaths of his parents. Based on a manga by Story of Riki–creator Tetsuya Saruwatari, this Rambo clone was released in America by U.S. Manga Corps. LNV

Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds *

1981. jpn: Wan Wan Sanjushi. aka: Dogtanian and the Three Invincible Musketeers. TV series. dir: Taku Sugiyama, Shigeo Koshi. scr: Taku Sugiyama. des: Shuichi Seki. ani: Shuichi Seki, Takao Kogawa. mus: Ka­tsuhisa Hattori. prd: Nippon Animation, TBS. 25 mins. x 24 eps., 25 mins. x 10 eps.

D’Artagnan (Dogtanian) is a young dog who wants to be one of the fabled musketeers, but his hot-headed ways get him into trouble when he challenges the Earl of Rochefort (Black Moustache) on the way to Paris. Eventually he becomes a musketeer, teaming up with three experienced guard dogs, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. When war breaks out between France and England, Dogtanian and his friends must undertake a mission to save the honor of the French queen, who has befriended the English ruler—a King Charles Spaniel, of course. The spiteful feline spy Milady, however, is on their trail at every turn.

This touching, funny, and exciting retelling of the Three Musketeers in the canine spirit of Woof Woof 47 Ronin became a much-loved serial on British children’s television, though its Japanese origins were completely obscured and one “Dave Mallow” was credited as the director. The excruciating pun in the title was a direct translation of the original Spanish coproducers’ D’Artacan y los Tres Mosqueperros. As well as four separate TV compilations on video in the U.S., a movie-length edit, One for All and All for One, was released in the U.K. Ten extra episodes were made solely for foreign broadcast by Shigeo Koshi but never shown in Japan, though they are presumably a major part of the “second series” seen abroad as The Return of Dogtanian.

Dogtato

2004. jpn: Jagainu. TV series. dir: Yutaka Kagawa. scr: Isao Shizutani. des: Ikuko Ito. ani: Ikuko Ito. mus: N/C. prd: Egg, Aniplex. 3 mins. x 16 eps.

Surreal preschoolers’ entertainment in which Dogtato, a hybrid of dog and potato, lives a happy existence in Veggie Town with his food-themed animal friends, including Haripotato the hedgehog/potato, Nasuinu the eggplant/dog, Kyuribird the cucumber/bird, and Negiwani the shallot/crocodile. Presumably made by the generation of animators who grew up watching Tomato-man, based on stories by Masako Sugiyama.

Dokaben

1976. aka: Lunchbox. TV series. dir: Hiroe Mitsunobu, Eiji Okabe. scr: Ta­tsuo Tamura. des: Eisuke Endo. ani: Nobuhiro Okaseko. mus: Shunsuke Kikuchi. prd: Nippon Animation, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 163 eps.

Compulsive eater Taro “Lunchbox” Yamada is a new transfer student at Takaoka (Hawk Hill) middle school. A gentle and kind individual, he soon shows his incredible strength in the school judo club. The baseball team soon realizes that he could be useful and brings him onto the team as its “little giant.” Before long, Dokaben is the ace hitter on the team, but this brings forth bad feelings in some of his teammates. This typical sports anime was based on a 31-volume manga by Shinji Mizushima, creator of Song of the Baseball Enthusiast. Dokaben also has a cameo appearance in Go for It, Tabuchi.

Dokachin

1968. TV series. dir: Hiroshi Sasa-
gawa. scr: Jinzo Toriumi. des: Tatsuo Yoshida. ani: N/C. mus: Seiichiro Uno. prd: Fuji TV, Tatsunoko. 15 mins. x
52 eps.

A time-travel comedy created by Tatsuo Yoshida for Tatsunoko and shot in 15-minute episodes, screened two at a time. Primitive boy Dokachin, his father Tototo, and mother Kakaka, plus a chunk of their land, are brought forward in time by an experiment that gets out of hand. The comedy arises from their struggle to cope with the frantic pace of 1960s Japan. Compare to Wonderful Genie Family.

Doki Doki School Hours *

2004. jpn: Sensei no Ojikan. aka: Teacher’s Time. TV series. dir: Yoshiaki Iwasaki. scr: Hideki Shirane, Michiko Ito. des: Kiyotaka Nakahara. ani: N/C. mus: Yoshihisa Hirano. prd: Geneon, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 20 eps.

Mika Suzuki is a new teacher at Okitsu High School, although since she is the height of a child and has a babyish face the students have trouble taking her seriously. Based on a manga by Tamami Momose, this high school story abandons all attempt at plot and makes the interaction between Mika and her pupils the main event, with Mika very definitely the lovable loser of the group. Her biggest problem is that one of her pupils, the overdeveloped Kitagawa, is fixated on small women. Classroom discipline is also compromised by her inability to stop pupil Watabe drawing manga—mostly because Teacher wants to see how the story ends. Meanwhile class dreamboy Seki is busy crossdressing and generally being flamboyant. There is an interesting psychological point buried in this and other classroom anime, made by the products of one of the most regulated and rigid education systems in the world, who view schooldays through rose-colored glasses with comedy lenses as havens of fun and individuality presided over by wackily sympathetic teachers. Sadly some of the nuances and references will be lost on non-Japanese speaking audiences, since gags are not just visual but flashed up in text. The limited animation is enlivened with graphic techniques like tone, speedlines, and sparkle-dots from its manga roots, reversing the process of lifting moving picture techniques into comics that made Osamu Tezuka a manga superstar six decades earlier. Compare to Azumanga Daioh and Pani Poni Dash.

Dokkan Robotendon

1995. TV series. dir: Hiroshi Sasagawa. scr: Masaaki Sakurai. des: Mitsutoshi Tokuyama, Katsumi Hashimoto. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Tatsunoko, TV Tokyo. 6.5 mins. x 26 eps.

Voice actress Megumi Hayashibara starred as the cute little robot in the red metal baseball cap in this breakfast TV kiddy show, which was apparently so popular with young audiences it was repeated immediately.

Dokkoida *

2003. jpn: Sumeba Miyako no Cosmos-So Suttoko Taisen Dokkoida. aka: Sutokko War Dokkoida; Ultra Diaper Man. TV series. dir: Hitoyuki Matsui, Takuya Nonaka. scr: Kazuharu Sato, Ryunosuke Kingetsu, Waji Sato. des: Jun Shibata, Yasutoshi Niwa. ani: Haruo Sotozaki, Satoru Nakaya, Toshimitsu Kobayashi. mus: Kuniaki Haishima. prd: Media Factory, Toshiba, Media Works, Klockworx, TV Kanagawa. 25 mins. x 12 eps.

Suzuo Sakurazaki is a college geek with no money and not much street savvy. When a mystery girl suddenly introduces herself as Tampopo and offers him a job as guinea pig for a secret project, he assumes it’s just a media spin to glamorize a promotion job for a toy company. Then he learns that the project—a transformation belt that turns the wearer into Dokkoida, savior of the universe—is for real. He’s now a superhero in the pay of the Galaxy Federation Police, with the job of catching their most wanted criminals. He doesn’t even get a cool outfit—Dokkoida’s transformation leaves him dressed in a diaper. Luckily most of his opponents are as ridiculous as they are deadly, because he can’t even get away from Dokkoida’s world at the end of the day—not only Tampopo, who pretends she’s his sister as part of their cover story, but also his enemies, turn out to live in the same dorm. Slapstick humor and more than a few nods to Kikaider, Ultraman, and Masked Rider (*DE).

Dokuro-chan

2005. jpn: Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan. aka: Clubbing Angel Dokuro. TV series. dir: Tsutomu Mizushima. des: Makoto Koga. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Geneon, Hal Filmmaker, Media Works. 13 mins. x 8 eps., 24 mins. x 4 eps.

Socially withdrawn 14-year-old boy Sakura Kusakabe would like to share secrets with a girl his own age, but is too shy to mention this to Shizuki, the unwitting object of his affections. Instead, he fakes diary entries from Shizuki to amuse himself, only to discover that he will not always be the loser he appears to be. At some future date, he will become a renowned inventor of something so important that rivals are prepared to send time-traveling assassins back to kill him. One would-be terminator is Dokuro, a cute angelic girl with a large spiked club—the titular bokusatsu literally means “clubbing to death.” Not that one needs to see far into the past to see DNA², to which this is rather similar; and so Dokuro soon gives up on her mission to live with Sakura, giving him a girlfriend of sorts who also defends him against later assassins in a rehash of Mahoromatic. However, she is so hapless that she regularly beats Sakura to death in the style of Kenny from South Park, and is forced to use her magical angel powers to bring him repeatedly back to life. A game followed on PS2. Released in the US by Anime Works as Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan.

Dollimog

1986. jpn: Dollimog Da! aka: It’s Dollimog!; Mock and Sweet. TV series. dir: Hiroshi Fujioka. scr: Yasunori Kawauchi, Seiji Matsuoka, Ryuji Yamada. des: Susumu Shiraume. ani: Yoshihiko Takakura, Masami Abe, Teruo Kigure. mus: Goro Nogi. prd: Japan Comart, NTV. 25 mins. x 49 eps.

In 8th-century Europe, the Frankish king Charlemagne sends out his paladins to invade the neighboring countries. In the midst of this chaos, Dollimog the mole and his sister, Hanamog, come to the aid of humans in trouble. They understand human speech and are walking the “dollimog road” on a quest to bring down Charlemagne and his evil sorcerer, Babar.

Based on a story by writer Kawauchi in which underground dwellers try to preserve peace in their own world by interfering in ours, this original piece of medieval moling only stayed with the Charlemagne plot for 23 episodes—the rest of the series leaps 300 years ahead to the time of the Crusades.

Domain of Murder *

1992. jpn: Hello Harinezumi: Satsui no Ryobun. aka: Hello Hedgehog: Domain of Murder. Video. dir: Akira Suzuki. scr: Akinori Endo. des: Masaaki Kawanami. ani: Masaaki Kawanami. mus: Noriyoshi Matsuura. prd: Animate Film. 51 mins.

Private investigator Goro Nanase, whose nickname “Hedgehog” is a pun on “Watchman” and “Bed-head,” is hired by Mrs. Toyama to locate her missing husband. The only clue, his face on a poster proclaiming that he’s wanted for murder. The race is on, Nanase against the Tokyo Police, through the snowbound Japanese countryside to the slush and dirty sleet of small-town Japan.

Sadly, Domain of Murder was the only episode from the 24-volume manga in Young Magazine to be animated. Artist Kenshi Hirokane also created the best-selling Section Chief Kosaku Shima and the manga masterpiece for the over-60s, Shooting Stars in the Twilight. This is the Japan familiar to Hirokane’s adult audience, a lower-middle-class suburb of hard-drinking salarymen and smoking mothers. The production was ill-served in English (with a distributor who managed to mistranslate the names of the creator, writer, main cast, and director!), though the subtitled edition retained the excellent voice of Shigeru (Arion) Nakahara in the lead, and there’s a wonderful cameo from Yo Inoue (Patlabor’s Kanuka Clancy) as a bar-girl past her prime. Endo’s script contains some beautifully observed moments, such as a reverse interrogation when Nanase and his ally double-team the cop they find in her apartment. The subtitles leave the marvelous Japanese-style Raymond Chandler–inspired dialogue untouched, and linguists should watch for the timeless moment when Inoue changes from polite-friendly to superpolite-hostile.

Dominion *

1988. aka: Dominion: Tank Police. Video. dir: Koichi Mashimo, Takaaki Ishiyama, Noboru Furuse. scr: Koichi Mashimo, Hiroshi Yamaguchi. des: Mi­tsuharu Miyamae, Koji Ito. ani: Hiroki Takagi, Osamu Honda. mus: Yoichiro Yoshikawa. prd: Agent 21. 40 mins. x 4 eps., 30 mins. x 6 eps.

Newport City, an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, is already overcrowded with giant bioengineered termite mounds for buildings by 2010. Nanotechnology gone wrong chokes the city with a bacterial fog, and the unhappy citizenry is besieged by high-tech crime syndicates. To combat this spree, the government forms the self-explanatory Tank Police.

Dominion was the first professional manga by Appleseed-creator Masamune Shirow, published in Comi-Comi in 1988, and displays a sense of humor that tails off in his later works. Like Patlabor, it has a lowly lady cop, Leona Ozaki, who works for a paramilitary police force, bestows a pet name on her machine, and spars flirtily with her partner, though the show concentrates more on comedy than slice-of-life drama. Thus we have Leona’s immediate boss, the Dirty Harry–­wannabe Brenten constantly arguing with his hypertense Chief, as well as the standard semi-love interest Al and computer nerd “Megane” Lovelock.

After a prequel beginning with Leona joining the Tank Police and the creation of her beloved tank Bonaparte out of spare parts, the anime series draws on early chapters of the manga, pitting the police against Buaku, a rogue android, who is accompanied by the infamous, scantily clad Puma Twins, Annapuma and Unipuma. Taking the piss is the order of the day—the Buaku gang wants to steal urine samples from uncontaminated citizens and attempts to deter pursuit by throwing inflatable dildoes all over the street. As in the manga, there are hints that Buaku’s motives are secretly honorable; in a Blade Runner pastiche, he is searching for information about his creator, and his urine thefts may be part of a plan to deal with the pollution (less ecologically damaging than in the manga but still there). Buaku and Leona are forced to team up against the Red Commando terrorists in the next two episodes as they try to recover a valuable painting, and, at the finale, Buaku seemingly reforms his evil ways.

In 1992, Shirow revisited the franchise in Comic Gaia with a parallel story, dropping Buaku and Al, promoting Leona to Squad Leader, and giving her command of an entire fleet of Bonaparte-model tanks. Adapted into anime by Noboru Furuse as New Dominion Tank Police (1993), the new, slightly darker series brought Al back, restored the Puma Twins to a life of crime (they had reformed in the manga and joined the squad), and told a far darker story as the squad battles the evil corporation Dai Nippon Gaiken, which is developing a virtual drug as a spin-off from its weapons research. These new episodes were renumbered for the U.K. video release and are hence sometimes known as episodes 5-10 of the “old” Dominion, rather than 1-6 of the “new.” LNV

Domu

Animation studio founded in 1986 by several defectors from other companies, incorporated in 1993 after the hiring of former Mushi Production staffer Takeshi Anzai, and the subsequent restructuring caused by his arrival. Notable staff members include Tsukasa Abe, Shinji Kawagoe and Kazuhiko Nozawa; representative productions include Bubu Chacha and Sentimental Graffiti.

Don! Brutal Water Margin

1992. jpn: Don! Gokudo Suikoden. Video. dir: Osamu Sekita. scr: Tadashi Hirose. des: Masafumi Yamamoto. ani: Takeshi Osaka. mus: Manako Nonoyama. prd: JC Staff. 50 mins. x 2 eps.

Takekichi and Masakazu are two tough guys who are forced to go underground when they lose their boss in a turf war. This modern update of the classic Chinese novel Water Margin (see Suikoden) is another gangster tale from Goodfella’s Hiroshi Motomiya, originally published in Big Comic. NV

Don Chuck

1975. jpn: Don Chuck Monogatari. TV series. dir: Yukizo Takagaki, Tsutomu Yamamoto. scr: Tomohiro Ando, Susumu Yoshida, Tsutomu Yamamoto. des: Eiji Tanaka, Yasuo Ikenodani. ani: Eiji Tanaka, Yasuo Ikenodani. mus: MAC. prd: Knack, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 26 eps. (TV1), 25 mins. x 73 eps. (TV2).

Deep in the Zawazawa Forest by the Jub-Jub river lives Don Aristotle the beaver and his child, Don Chuck. Aristotle frets that his son will grow up strange without a mother, and Chuck starts to associate with beaver girl Lala, a rabbit called Mimi, and Daigo the bear cub. The quartet gets into all sorts of trouble as Chuck slowly grows into an adult.

Don Chuck began as the mascot character for a fairground before starring in children’s books by Shizuo Koizumi and Makio Narita and eventually gaining this anime outing. The measure of the series’ success is in the fact that the “real” Chuck mascot began to take on attributes of the anime character in the months that followed. A second series, New DC (1976), lasted even longer and introduced a family of out-of-place koalas.

Don Dracula

1982. TV series, video. dir: Masamune Ochiai. scr: Takao Koyama. des: Osamu Tezuka. ani: Masayuki Uchiyama. mus: Masayuki Yamamoto. prd: Jin Pro, TV Tokyo. 30 mins. x 4 (orig., 8 total) eps., 90 mins. (v).

Count Dracula, his daughter Chocula, and servant Igor move from Transylvania to Tokyo, where Dracula has trouble finding enough victims on his night sorties. Chocula helps her father, though it also interferes with her studies at night school. Trouble arrives in the form of famed vampire-hunter Dr. Rip van Helsing, who comes to Tokyo in search of his archenemy. An anime adaptation of Tezuka’s manga serial in Shonen Champion that was truncated by the bankruptcy of its production house. Of the planned 26 episodes, only 4 were shown on Japanese TV. The 8 episodes completed were eventually released straight to video in a feature-length movie edit. Similar lighthearted treatment of vampire folklore can be found in Phantom Quest Corp. Dracula’s voice actor Kenji Utsumi played the same role in the more serious Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned.

Don Quixote

1980. jpn: Zukkoke (Bumbling) Knight Don de la Mancha. TV series. dir: Kunihiko Yuyama, Shinya Sadamitsu, Soji Yoshikawa, Osamu Sekita. scr: Akiyoshi Sakai, Soji Yoshikawa, Tomomi Tsutsui, Junzo Toriumi, Masaru Yamamoto. des: Noa Kawai. ani: Kazuo Tomisawa, Kunio Watanabe, Satoshi Hirayama, Osamu Nabeshima. mus: Nobuyoshi Koshibe. prd: Ashi Pro, Tokyo 12 Channel. 25 mins. x 23 eps.

Don Quixote sets out in search of his beloved Princess Dulcinea, but the girl he desires is only a “princess” insofar as she is the daughter of Carabos the pirate “king.” In order to impress Carabos, Quixote carries out several criminal missions on behalf of his would-be father-in-law. Discovering that “Dulcinea” is an imposter, Quixote sets out once more in search of her, accompanied by his faithful servant, Sancho Panza, and his horse, Rozinante. Miguel de Cervantes’s classic knight who tilted at windmills is brought to life here in this action-comedy, with the character’s insanity brought to the fore by a manic performance from Don Dracula’s Kenji Utsumi, who positively foams at the mouth.

Donkikko

1965. TV series. dir: Koichi Ishiguro. scr: Koichi Ishiguro, Yoshio Nunogami. des: Shotaro Ishinomori. ani: Yoshio Nunogami, Yoshikazu Inamura. mus: Kiyoko Yamamoto. prd: B Pro, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 21 eps.

Short tales of Donkikko, his boy assistant, Dondon, and their pet duck, Gonbei, as they search the town for missing items, help Grandpa run an antique shop, and eventually go to live in an old abandoned train. An adaptation of Cyborg 009–creator Shotaro Ishinomori’s manga from Shonen Book magazine.

Don’t Give Up: Way of the Magic Sword

1995. jpn: Don’t Give Up: Ma Ken Do. Video. dir: Kazuya Murata. scr: Yasuo Komatsuzaki. des: NAO Shimizu, Sa-
yuri Isseki. ani: Sayuri Isseki. mus: Koji Sakuyama. prd: OLM. 29 mins.

Officer Doro, a good demon, attempts to recruit Mai Tsurigino as a demon-hunter to police the activities of less scrupulous creatures from the Other Side. Mai refuses but gets dragged in anyway when her little sister, Hikari, takes the job. Doctor Mad (a mad scientist) operates on juvenile delinquent Rei Kamiyoji to turn him into a superweapon to conquer both the human and demon worlds. Rei kills his creator and goes on the rampage, and it’s up to the newly recruited demon-hunters to stop him. A Devil Hunter Yohko rip-off originating in an SNES console game.

Don’t Leave Me Alone Daisy *

1997. jpn: Misutenaide Daisy. TV series. dir: Yuji Muto. scr: Satoru Nishizono, Ryota Yamaguchi, Kazuhisa Sakaguchi. des: Atsuko Nakajima. ani: Shigeru Ueda, Naoki Hishikawa. mus: Kazuhiro Wakabayashi. prd: Studio Deen, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 12 eps.

Reijiro Tekuno (Techno) is a super-rich recluse who lives in a nuclear bunker. He uses his IQ and bank balance to build walls of technology around himself and his fantasy world, where net-surfing is as physical an experience as the real thing. One day (in a scene reminiscent of Kimagure Orange Road) Hitomi’s hat is blown away by the wind and lands in Techno’s garden. He is immediately smitten with her and insists on calling her Daisy, claiming her as his property, much to her distress. This new twist on geek-meets-girl, intercut with survivalism-by-Microsoft, has a deus ex machina in the bearded form of Grandpa fulfilling a promise to Techno’s dead parents, and a fly in the ointment in the butch senior classmate, Ani, who appoints herself to ride shotgun on Techno’s schemes. A salutary message about how life won’t always comply just because you point money or a computer at it is buried beneath a lighthearted school romance in the spirit of Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl. Strangely endearing despite being a comedy about a stalker, Noriko Nagano’s original 1988 manga somehow caught the “virtual” spirit of the times, though it was by no means her most popular—unadapted geek-meets-girl tales from the same creator include Otaku Master and God Save the Sugekoma-kun.

Doomed Megalopolis *

1991. jpn: Teito Monogatari. aka: Capital Story. Video. dir: Rintaro, Kazuhiko Katayama, Koichi Chigira. scr: Akinori Endo, Takaichi Chiaki. des: Masayuki. ani: Shinji Tanaka, Yumiko Kawakami, Osamu Kobayashi. mus: Kazz Toyama. prd: Madhouse. 47 mins. x 4 eps.

In 1908, the ghost of Yoshinori Kato, a soldier killed in the Sino-Japanese War, kidnaps the beautiful Yukari and offers her as a human sacrifice to Masakado, Tokyo’s unofficial guardian deity. Masakado refuses Kato’s offer, but Yukari gives birth to Yukiko, assumed to be Masakado’s spiritual heir. The years pass, and Kato tries again to seize power at the death of the emperor in 1912. Child-prodigy Yukiko fights him off and he retreats to the underworld. By 1923, the traumatized Yukari and her daughter live with Yukari’s brother, Tatsumi, and his new wife, Keiko, who is an undercover priestess charged with defeating Kato. Another coup attempt by Kato almost succeeds, resulting in the 1923 Tokyo earthquake (found in many anime, including Urotsukidoji, Oshin, and Smart-san). Tatsumi confesses that Yukiko is his daughter, and that Yukari’s madness is the result of her rape by her own brother. Keiko goes out to face Kato one final time, revealing herself to be the Goddess of Mercy. She fuses with Kato, and Tokyo is saved, leaving Tatsumi to wonder that if even Kato can be forgiven, there might be hope for him.

With a virginal, sleepwalking heroine in jeopardy, a powerful, predatory sorcerer, and a wise old man seeking to keep them apart, Alexander-creator Hiroshi Aramata’s original novel is a Japanese retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Though often labored and unnecessarily slow, the series still has many good points, notably a well-handled incest subplot and a surreal palette of colors, textures, and set pieces. Later episodes move into Omen territory, as Yukiko struggles with her alleged destiny as the child of the Devil, though the finale is pure anime, with hallucinogenic visions and mass destruction à la Akira. The story is loaded with historical references—not only does Kato hail from the birthplace of medieval magician Abe no Seimei (hero of Master of Yin and Yang), but the period background also shows many of Tokyo’s familiar landmarks under construction. Tokyo’s guardian Masakado is a genuine historical figure, a 10th-century rebel from the region, just one of the real figures in a story that views the century since Tokyo became Japan’s capital as an era in which the country itself was demonically possessed. The year 1940, as Japan prepared for WWII, was the thousandth anniversary of Masakado’s death. Kato represents a modern malaise, a soldier forged in the fires of Meiji Japan’s first foreign war, who dies in the battle of Dalian in 1894, returns to stoke nationalist arrogance after the defeat of Russia in 1905, and observes the “dark valley” of 1920s militarism. In this regard, he is a distant cousin of the prodigal soldier who terrorizes Tokyo in Patlabor 2. In a further subtext, the death of the Meiji Emperor had a recent parallel for a home audience that had just mourned his grandson Hirohito.

There are separate U.S. and U.K. dubs, each with their own merits. Manga Entertainment’s uses British accents, which work well with the overpolite, middle-class characters but still leave them sounding unsettlingly twee. Streamline’s U.S. dub, however, doesn’t put quite as much effort into duplicating the haunting folksongs that carry much of the suspense in the middle episodes.

The story was also made into the live-action movies Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (1988) and Dictator of the City (1989), directed by Akio Jissoji and Takashige Ichinose. A third film, Capital Story: Secret Report (1995), was a live-action epilogue set in the present day, when evil spirits use the traumatized survivors of the earlier films to return to our world. NV

Door into Summer, The

1981. jpn: Natsu e no Tobira. Movie. dir: Mori Masaki, Toshio Hirata. scr: Masaki Tsuji. des: Keiko Takemiya, Yoshiaki Kawajiri. ani: Kazuo Tomisawa. mus: Kentaro Haneda. prd: Toei. 59 mins.

In 1864 France, Marion is a young man forced to spend the summer at his boarding school because his uncaring mother has recently remarried and does not want him around. Stuck with a small number of companions for the long vacation, Marion soon becomes involved in a series of duels, brawls, and romantic entanglements, such as falling in love with the mayor’s daughter, Ledania, but also developing strong feelings for Claude, a boy in his class. Based on the romance manga in Hana to Yume by Toward the Ter­ra–creator Keiko Takemiya, this story was published later than the author’s similar Song of Wind and Trees but beat it to anime adaptation, thus gaining some notoriety. This is one of the very rare cases of a mass-market release for a gay anime. Even in supposedly more liberal times, such stories tended to go straight to video, e.g., Fake or My Sexual Harassment. N

Doraemon

1973. TV series. dir: Nobuo Onuki, Hiroshi Fukutomi, Hideo Nishimaki, Tsutomu Shibayama, Takeyuki Kanda. scr: Ryohei Suzuki, Masaki Tsuji, Seiji Matsuoka, Masaaki Sakurai, Kazuyoshi Okubo. des: Fujiko-Fujio, Kunio Okawara. ani: Fusahito Nagaki, Sadao Tominaga, Hidekazu Nakamura. mus: Nobuyoshi Koshibe, Shunsuke Kikuchi. prd: Studio Take, Studio Joke, NTV Animation, Shinei, Nippon TV. 25 mins. x 26 eps. (TV1), 10 mins. x 617 eps. and 25 mins. x 1787+ eps. (TV2), 25 mins x 43+ eps. (TV3).

In the 22nd century, the impoverished descendants of Nobita Nobi pool their resources and send Doraemon, a cut-rate, blue robot cat, back in time to turn him into a more successful person. Doraemon dazzles the schoolboy Nobita and his friends with his endless array of futuristic gadgets, including a portable dimension-door and head-mounted rotor-blades. However, Nobita’s great-great-grandchildren are so poor that they have sent a malfunctioning mentor whose plans often go awry. Though Doraemon always saves the day, it’s normally his fault it needs saving.

Often credited Lennon-and-McCartney-style to the Fujiko-Fujio duo who created Qtaro the Ghost, Doraemon was actually a solo project for Hiroshi “Fujiko” Fujimoto. An ongoing series fully expected to top 2,000 episodes by the end of 2004, the simple stories and almost timeless animation have kept the series a perennial favorite. Like Lupin III, it is an original “retro anime” that never had to be revived and has reared several generations of Japanese children. The lineup never changes—Nobita and his cat, along with prissy love interest Shizuka, sneaky intellect Suneo, and hulking lummox Jaian play in their neighborhood (which, with its open spaces and woodlands, is perhaps the only part of the series to have dated), boast about their abilities, and call each other’s bluff. With the threat of undesirable forfeits, such as stuffing an entire plateful of spaghetti up the loser’s nose, Nobita turns to Doraemon for help, and the cat’s techno assistance causes more trouble than it is worth.

Doraemon movies have become a regular feature of the Japanese spring break. In Nobita’s Dinosaur (1980), a harmless prehistoric pet assumes gargantuan proportions and must be returned to its proper era before it eats Tokyo. When Doraemon returns it to the wrong group of dinosaurs, it has to be rescued, only to need rescuing again when it is kidnapped by a hunter from a 24th-century zoo (note how even this feature version can easily break into three episode-length chapters). This was followed in successive years by Nobita the Space Colonist, Nobita’s Magic Tower, Nobita’s Undersea Fortress, Nobita Goes to Hell, Nobita’s Little Star Wars, and Nobita and the Iron Warrior, the latter released in the year of creator Fujimoto’s death, 1986. After a one-year hiatus, Doraemon was back again in 1988 with Nobita’s Parallel Journey to the West, then Nobita at the Birth of Japan, Nobita’s Animal Planet, Nobita’s Animal Arabian Nights, Nobita in Snow Country, Nobita’s Tin-Plate Labyrinth, and Nobita’s Fantastic Three Musketeers. After this rash of pas­tiches, perhaps more conservative choices in the absence of Fujimoto, a slight change of emphasis came with the 1995 movie, 2112: The Birth of Doraemon, which cleverly recapped the series’ origins for another new generation before returning to form with Nobita’s Galactic Express, Nobita’s Clockwork City, Nobita’s South Sea Adventure, Nobita Gets Lost in Space, the Aztec-themed Nobita and the Legend of the Sun King, and, in the year 2001, Nobita’s Winged Heroes. Subsequent movies have included Nobita and the Robot Kingdom (2002), Nobita’s Wonderful Spinning Tops (2003), and Nobita’s Wannyan Space Odyssey (2004). In 2005, the voice cast who had played the roles since the second TV series, whose youngest member was now in her sixties, were finally retired and replaced with a new group of younger actors. Their first movie appearance was in Nobita’s Dinosaur 2006, a remake of the 1980 movie.

The robot cat has also appeared in literally dozens of TV specials over the last 20 years, many of which were combined with other specials to create still more “movies,” including It’s New Year!, It’s Summer!, It’s Autumn!, It’s Winter!, It’s Spring!, Summer Holiday, Doraemon Meets Hattori the Ninja, Featherplane, What Am I for Momotaro?, Come Back Doraemon (which was, ironically, repeated several times), Doraemon and Itchy the Stray, Doraemon’s Time Capsule for 2001, and Treasure of Shinugami Mountain. Later outings also featured cameos from Doraemon’s “little sister” from the future, Dorami-chan, who got several short films of her own, starting with Dorami-chan: Mini-Dora SOS (1981). The concept was employed many times by other creators, most notably in the saucy time travels of DNA2 and Visionary.

Dorataro

1981. jpn: Fusen no Dorataro. aka: Wandering Taro and His Balloon. TV series. dir: Tomohiko Takano, Kozo Kusuba. scr: Kozo Kusuba. des: Yasuji Mori. ani: Takao Kogawa. mus: Masayuki Chiyo. prd: Nippon Animation, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 13 eps.

After many years of wandering, Taro returns to Cat Island to meet his sister, Sakura, who has stayed on the island with their adoptive parents, and to woo the beautiful ship captain, Haruko. Though his family is pleased to see him, they all come to realize that the long separation has seen them grow into different people, and the return of the prodigal son has only emphasized how far apart they have all become. An anime pastiche of the long-running live-action Tora-san series.

Dororo

1969. TV series. dir: Gisaburo Sugii, Osamu Dezaki, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Ryosuke Takahashi. scr: Ryohei Suzuki, Toru Sawaki, Taku Sugiyama. des: Osamu Tezuka. ani: Hideaki Kitano. mus: Isao Tomita. prd: Mushi Pro, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 26 eps.

A warlord promises 48 demons that he will donate the body parts of his unborn son in exchange for power. The baby is born as little more than a lump of flesh and is cast into a river, from which it is rescued by a kindly physician. He replaces the missing parts with prostheses, and the child, now a grown man called Hyakki-maru, resolves to slay the 48 demons and regain each of his missing limbs and organs. As he sets off, he teams up with Dororo (baby-talk for dorobo, Japanese for thief), a girl thief whose parents once tried to lead an uprising.

Dororo began as a 1967 manga by Astro Boy–creator Osamu Tezuka. Inspired in part by Shirato’s Manual of Ninja Martial Arts, which featured similar Marxist undertones, it incorporates elements of Tezuka’s Black Jack, another driven, patchwork hero with a little-girl sidekick. The manga series was canceled early, before Tezuka’s planned shift in focus to Dororo’s coming-of-age, and the anime version retains the slightly misleading title—the stories broadcast remain primarily the tale of Dororo’s companion. From episode 14 onward, this was reflected in a name change, to Dororo and Hyakki-maru. Director Sugii and a roster of future big-names emphasized a realistic look, making a virtue out of the monochrome production. Tezuka originally intended to make the show in color (and even made a color pilot) but was prevented from doing so by the low budgets approved by Fuji TV. The story has been cited as a major influence on one of the 1990s’ best-selling manga, Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal. The Dororo manga was also the inspiration for the console game released in English as Blood Will Tell.

Dororon Enma

1973. jpn: Dororon Enma-kun. TV series. dir: Kimio Yabuki, Keisuke Mori­shita, Takeshi Shirato, Fusahito Nagaki, Tomoharu Katsumata, Tetsu Dezaki. scr: Masaki Tsuji, Tadaaki Yamazaki, Shunichi Yukimuro, Masami Uehara. des: Kimio Yabuki. ani: Kazuhide Tomonaga, Kazuo Mori, Yoshinori Kanemori. mus: Hiroshi Tsu­tsui. prd: Dynamic Planning, Toei, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 25 eps.

All the obvious hallmarks of a production from Go Nagai, creator of Devilman, as the King of Hell discovers that several of his Earthbound minions are not causing mayhem but secretly plotting to overthrow him. He sends his nephew, Little Enma, to solve the problem, and Little Enma teams up with miniskirted Yukiko, daughter of the Snow Princess (see Japanese Folk Tales), and Kappael the water-demon (a kappa) to form the Japanese Monster Patrol. Enma also has a sentient hat called Chapeau, a coward who always advises against danger but will always help out his young master in the end. Hiding out at the house of manga fan Tsutomu, who christens them, the group hunts down those who have abused the laws of Hell. Their guide is Count Dracula himself, a disgraced demon who failed to report the conspiracy, and who sulkily acts as Enma’s Tokyo guide despite resenting having to take orders from a little brat. “Dororon” is Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of a spell occurring, loosely approximated by “Kapow!”

Dotanba’s Modern Manners

1984. jpn: Dotanba no Manner. aka: Last-Minute Manners. TV series. dir: Hiroshi Yoshida. scr: Tomoko Misawa, Osamu Murayama, Saburo Goto. des: Sanpei Sato. ani: Tadao Wakabayashi. mus: N/C. prd: Fuji TV, Eiken. 6 mins. x 284 eps.

An introduction to etiquette through the hapless antics of Mr. Dotanba, who manages to put his foot in it in innumerable social situations. Gems of life-saving wisdom include tips on how to use a toilet, what not to say to your co­workers, how to avoid getting slapped by pretty girls, and exactly what to do to make foreign business trips go wrong. Based on a four-panel strip by Sanpei Sato in the Asahi Shinbun newspaper. Another Sato strip was released as Video Manga:Yuhi-kun (1984), al-though it was not technically “anime,” consisting of narration over still panels. The same team went on to make the even more successful Kotowaza House, a set of tips for health and well-being.

Doteraman

1986. TV series. dir: Shinya Sada­mitsu, Hiroshi Yamada, Yoshiyuki Suga. scr: Takao Koyama, Toshiki Inoue, Yoshiyuki Suga. des: Mayori Sekijima, Yoshio Mizumura. ani: Yoshio Mizumura, Chuichi Iguchi. mus: Kohei Tanaka. prd: Tatsunoko. 25 mins. x 20 eps.

Shigeru Suzuki is an everyday salaryman at an everyday Tokyo company in an everyday part of town with an interdimensional gateway to a world of demons. As devils with punning names try to invade the planet, Shigeru and the demon-hunter Zukan-Socknets recruit Hajime Sato and his friend Mariko Nakamura to don superhero costumes and fight back.

Double Wish

2004. jpn: W-Wish. TV series. dir: Osamu Sekita. scr: Katsumi Hasegawa. des: Yasunari Nitta. ani: Picture Magic, Trinet Ent. mus: Ryo Sakai. prd: Princess Soft, TV Kanagawa. 12 mins. x 13 eps.

The Tonho twins, Junna and his sister Senna, have lived alone in their family home since their parents died some years ago. They attend Sakurahama Private High School where Junna is the target of attention from a number of girls. Then new student Haruhi Inohara turns up claiming to be a childhood friend, but Junna barely remembers her and Senna doesn’t want him to—presumably they don’t remember Love Hina either. Based on a dating game that was itself renowned for featuring early animation work from Voices of a Distant Star creator Makoto Shinkai, DW was shown on Japanese TV as part of “Princess Hour” with similar story Final Approach.

Dougram: Fang of the Sun

1981. jpn: Taiyo no Kiba Dougram. aka: Fang of the Sun Dougram; Sun Fang Dougram. TV series. dir: Ryosuke Takahashi, Takeyuki Kanda. scr: Ryosuke Takahashi, Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, Yuji Watanabe, Ryohei Suzuki, Sukehiro Tomita. des: Soji Yoshikawa, Kunio Okawara. ani: Kaoru Izumiguchi. mus: Toru Fuyuki. prd: Sunrise, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 75 eps.

Planet Deroia claims independence from Earth, and Terran forces set out to put down the revolt. Kurine, son of the chairman of Earth’s Federal Congress, sides with the Deroians and becomes a terrorist. Forming the “Fang of the Sun” organization with his friends Rocky, Chico, and Cavina, he operates the Dougram giant war robot designed by the guerrilla leader, Dr. Samaline. Meanwhile, Kurine’s father, Donan Kashim, is under threat from internal machinations as his secretary plots to seize power for himself, and the adoring Lady Daisy sets off to follow Kurine, for whom she has fallen in a big way.

One of many clones of Gundam, but one that was a robot debut for Votoms-creator and father of “real robot shows” Ryosuke Takahashi.

Download

1992. jpn: Download: Namu Amida Butsu wa Ai no Uta. aka: Download: Song in Loving Homage to Amida Buddha. Video. dir: Rintaro. scr: Yoshiyuki Suga. des: Yoshinori Kaneda. ani: Takao Noda. mus: Hiroshi Kamiyatsu. prd: AIC, Artmic. 47 mins.

Shido, a priest, is a genius in two fields—computer hacking and lechery. For the sake of the beautiful Namiho, he takes on evil corporate president Echigoya in a battle of wits and skill. Based on the PC Engine game created by Wataru Nakajima.

Downtown

1997. TV special. dir: Kenji Shimazaki. scr: N/C. des: Toyoo Ashida. ani: Toyoo Ashida. mus: N/C. prd: Toei, Fuji TV. 30 mins.

Two class clowns take their humor out into the streets, terrorizing members of the public. Falling behind at school, they join the Yoshimoto Talent Agency and become the “fists of Yoshimoto,” better known as the comedy duo “Downtown.” They make their first TV appearance in 1987 and their own series, No Job for Kids. In 1996, they become Japan’s richest comedians and are honored the following year by this anime biopic.

DR Movie

A Korean animation company, founded in 1990, that often works on outsourced Japanese animation, particularly on the lower rungs of the creative process, such as colors or in-betweening. Its distinctive name, in easy-to-read roman letters, can often be found on the credits of “Japanese” cartoons, including those from Madhouse and Studio Ghibli.

Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned *

1980. jpn: Yami no Teio Kyuketsuki Dracula. aka: Dracula: Vampire Emperor of Darkness; Tomb of Dracula. TV special. dir: Minoru Okazaki, Akinori Nagaoka. scr: Tadaaki Yamazaki. des: Hiroshi Wagatsuma. ani: Hiroshi Waga­tsuma. mus: Seiji Yokoyama. prd: Toei, TV Asahi. 81 mins.

In modern-day Boston, Domini (Delores) is offered in sacrifice as a bride of Lucifer by the occultist Lupeski, but she is stolen away by Dracula. At first intending to drink her blood, the vampire instead falls in love with her. Wheelchair-bound Quincy (Hans) Harker and Rachel van Helsing, the son and granddaughter of Dracula’s old enemies, realize that some Boston “murders” are his handiwork. They recruit Frank Drake, a descendant of Dracula ashamed at his ancestor’s evil, as a vampire-hunter. Months later, on Christmas Eve, Domini gives birth to Dracula’s son, Janus. Lupeski, who has been informed of Dracula’s true identity, offers to baptize Janus, cornering Dracula in a church. Dracula evades the attack, but Lupeski accidentally shoots and kills the infant Janus. Dracula flees, and, having lost her son and lover, Domini plans to kill herself. However, God brings Janus back from the dead (as a fully grown man) in order to create the ultimate vampire-hunter. Before Janus can kill his father, Dracula and Domini are transported to Hell by Satan, for whom their love is an unbearable abomination. Satan blasts Dracula into ashes, but Domini’s holy love resurrects Dracula once more, this time as a mortal. When Lilith (Lila), a New York vampire created by Dracula, refuses to bite him to restore his immortality, Dracula flees to Transylvania. Dueling with the new Lord of the Vampires, Dracula reasserts his authority and saves peasant children from walking corpses. Despite signs that Dracula has rejected evil, the vampire-hunters locate him, and Harker kills both himself and Dracula with a bomb hidden in his wheelchair. Frank and Rachel admit their feelings for one another, and Janus flies home to tell Domini the news. His divine mission accomplished, Janus is restored to infant form to be raised by Domini.

A remarkably faithful adaptation of the first 50 or so issues of the Marvel Comics Tomb of Dracula series. The designs look unorthodox for anime, chiefly because they adhere to the original comic artwork by Gene Colan, though neither Colan nor the comic-writer Marv Wolfman are credited in the animated version. Less serious takes on Dracula appear in Don Dracula and Dororon Enma. Toei negotiated with Marvel in the 1970s about producing animated versions of several superheroes, though the only product of this was the eventual live-action Spider-Man team show. Frankenstein would follow the next year.

Dragon Ball *

1986. TV series, movies. dir: Minoru Okazaki, Daisuke Nishio, Kazuhisa Takenouchi, Katsumi Endo, Haruki Iwanami, Akinori Nagaoka. scr: Yasushi Hirano, Toshiki Inoue, Takao Koyama, Michiru Shimada, Yuji Endo, Tetsuo Imazawa, Tatsuo Higashino, Mitsuo Hashimoto. des: Tadamasa Tsuji, Yuji Ikeda. ani: Minoru Maeda, Ryukichi Takauchi, Masayuki Uchiyama. mus: Shunsuke Kikuchi. prd: Fuji TV, Toei. 25 mins. x 153 eps., 45 mins. x 3 films, 25 mins. x 291 eps. (DBZ), ca. 45–70 mins. x 14 films, 25 mins. x 64 eps. (DBGT).

Son Goku (Sun Wu-Kong) is an orphan martial artist, taught by the Master Kamesennin (Roshi) and enlisted by Bulma, a pretty girl whose father owns the Capsule invention corporation, to help her search for the seven legendary Dragon Balls. If brought together in the presence of the dragon god, Shen Long (Shin Long), these balls will grant a single wish. The two assemble a band of pilgrims, and, with time out for many martial arts tournaments and fights with divine beings, slowly gather the seven orbs. Members include Yamcha the highwayman; his shapeshifting feline partner, Pooal; Oolong the pig; Goku’s future wife, Chichi; and Goku’s Buddhist classmate, Krilyn. They must also fight off other groups, including the Red Ribbon organization, which wishes to change the space-time continuum by destroying Goku. Eventually, the high demon Piccolo uses the Dragon Balls to rejuvenate himself then kill Shen Long, while Goku and his gang travel to another world to use their Dragon Balls instead and prevent the alien overlord Frieza from getting them himself.

Tiring of his Doctor Slump and seeking a clean break from Western inspirations, creator Akira Toriyama plucked elements from Journey to the West for this follow-up. Redeveloping his early strip Dragon Boy, which incorporated Jackie Chan homages, he published Dragon Ball in 1984, and the series was soon animated. With a reset-to-zero gimmick in the balls’ unerring habit of scattering themselves throughout the universe and taking a year to recharge, the anime was able to stretch itself out for a formidable run, becoming one of the smashes of the late 1980s. It was less successful in the U.S., where only 26 episodes were shown before the distributors Funimation ditched the rest of the series and relaunched with DBZ (see below, though in 2001 they announced they would go back and fill in the gap).

Short “movie” versions followed as part of double and triple bills, beginning with Nishio’s DB: Legend of the Dragon (1986), in which Goku fights the evil Pasta and Pongo. The same director made DB: Sleeping Beauty in the Magic Castle (1987), while Takenouchi took over for the final film, DB: Marvelous Magical Mystery (1988), in which the cast of DB wanders into Doctor Slump’s Penguin Village for a cross-over. All formed parallel stories designed not to interfere with the continuity of the series, which eventually finished in 1989.

The DB sequel, DBZ, jumps three years into the future when an older Goku is now married with a son, Gohan. Because this is where many foreign-language versions begin, early episodes often seem like a massive class reunion at which the viewer knows nobody. Goku is attacked by the alien Raditz, who reveals that Goku is his brother, a Sayajin alien, sent to destroy the planet many years ago. Goku refuses to blow up his adopted home and opposes the invading Sayajin, dying and then being reborn as a blond-haired “Super Sayajin.” Violence and some nudity were cut for the U.S. release, but even in this bowdlerized form, the series remained popular.

This series also had a thriving series of short “movie” spin-offs, beginning with DBZ (1989) and then following with two a year, one for each major school holiday. These included The World’s Strongest and Dead Zone (both 1990, and released in the U.S. following the success of the DBZ TV series), Super Sayajin Son Goku and Tree of Might (both 1991, and U.S. releases), Collision: Billion Powered Warriors and Extreme Battle: Three Super Sayajin (both 1992), Ignite! Burning Fight! Greater Fight! Super Conflict Fight!, and Galaxy Flex! Very Threatening Guy (both 1993), Dangerous Duo! Super Warriors Never Rest and Super Warrior Destructive Fist: I Am the Victor (both 1994), Return Fusion! Goku and Vegeta and Strike Out Dragon Punch: Who’ll Get Goku? (both 1995), and, at last, the 80-minute feature The Strongest Way (1996).

DBZ came off the air in 1996, a few months after Toriyama pleaded exhaustion and stopped drawing the manga. Rebranded as Dragon Ball G(rand) T(our) the following month, it featured the return of arch-nemesis Emperor Pilaf with yet another set of Dragon Balls. The emperor accidentally wishes for Goku to be a child once more, so the new kiddie-friendly Goku sets out on another galactic adventure with Pan (his granddaughter) and an older version of Trunks (son of Bulma and Goku’s alien nemesis-turned-buddy Vegeta). Directed by Osamu Kasai, the new series seemed to have lost the magic and ended in November 1997. Tellingly, this was also the same time as Toriyama’s Doctor Slump was brought back on air, perhaps showing that the artist wasn’t quite so tired of his original creation after all. The story also exists in a tacky live-action 1996 Cantonese adaptation, DB: The Movie, directed by Joe Chan.

Dragon Century *

1988. jpn: Ryuseiki. Video. dir: Hiroyuki Kitazume. scr: Sho Aikawa. des: Hiroyuki Kitazume. ani: Hiroyuki Etsutomo. mus: Michiaki Kato. prd: AIC. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

Miserable teenager Riko wishes for
her city to be destroyed. Dragons appear in the sky from an unknown dimension but are killed by government forces. A lone survivor, the baby dragon Carmine, is reared in secret by Riko and former soldier Shoryu. Demons appear in the sky, summoned by the impurity of human hearts, and Carmine reveals that with the dragons sent to oppose them now dead, Riko will soon get her apocalyptic wish. Riko changes her mind and rides Carmine to defeat the demon king. As Riko breathes her last, the sky cracks open, filled with dragons come to defeat evil.

With teen angst and interdimensional holocaust, this forerunner of Evangelion had an afterthought sequel set 300 years after the invasion. On a traumatized Earth, another young girl, Lucillia, wishes to avenge her father’s death in the dragon-fighting tournament and enlists the help of Carmine (now known as Vermilion) in doing so. From an idea by Ryukihei, creator of the Dragon Wars manga.

Dragon Chronicle

1989. jpn: Maryu Senki. aka: War Chronicle of Magical Dragons. Video. dir: Tatsuya Okamoto. scr: Chuichi Watanabe. des: Naoyuki Onda. ani: Naoyuki Onda. mus: Tadamasa Yama-
naka. prd: AIC. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

A mixture of Oriental history and legend in the spirit of Yotoden and Dark Myth, as Miki Chiyoko, modern-day descendant of an ancient clan expunged from Japanese history books by a jealous emperor, summons one of the four Chinese creatures responsible for defending Earth. Conjoining with the Blue Dragon, he discovers that the three other beasts have scattered into other bodies, and he must find them if he wants to join forces with them. The others are revealed as drunken priest Gendo (Black Warrior), handsome potter Hiyu (White Tiger), and pretty Japanese teenager Shizue (Vermilion Sparrow), who all stand against Miki as he tries to enlist them in a scheme of evil. NV

Dragon Drive *

2002. TV series. dir: Akira Yoshimura, Isao Tokoyushi, Megumi Yamamoto, Toshifumi Kawase, Yuichi Wada. scr: Koichi Taki, Naruhisa Arakawa, Toshiki Inoue. des: Takahiro Umehara, Takahiro Yamada. ani: Minoru Kouno, Noriuki Fukuda, Takahiro Umehara, Yoshikai Hatano, Yoshiya Yamamoto. mus: N/C. prd: Madhouse, NAS, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 38 eps.

Reiji Ozora is a typical slacker teenager, dragged by his friend (and would-be girlfriend) Maiko to a secret arcade where he discovers a passion for the VR game Dragon Drive. The object of the game is to train and fight with virtual reality dragons, constructed using a player’s genetic code as the building blocks—like a DNA-centric version of the old Bar-Code Battlers. At first, Reiji’s dragon Chibisuke looks like a runt: a tiny snow-white bundle of cuteness that baffles the staff, so presumably none of them have heard of Anne McCaffrey’s novel The White Dragon (1978), with which we are sure any similarities are purely coincidental. When Chibisuke gets into action, he turns out to have impressive firepower in what begins as yet another predictable gaming tale framed along the lines of Pokémon and its ilk. However, a few episodes along, DD suddenly adopts a new direction redolent of Exper Zenon and The Last Starfighter, with Reiji transported to the fantasy world of Rikyu where the dragons are real. He is soon entering Chibisuke in gladiatorial combats in Rikyu, but is forced to deal with problems back home when a rival returns to Earth with some of the precious Dragonite element. The usual rounds of challenges, counter-challenges, and battles to save the world ensue, and two years later, in Legendz, they all ensue again.

Dragon Fist

1991. Video. dir: Shigeyasu Yamauchi. scr: N/C. des: Shingo Araki, Michi Himeno. ani: Hideki Kazushima. mus: Kenji Kawai. prd: Agent 21. 40 mins.

Chinese transfer student Ling Fei-Long is attacked by boys at his new school and saved by the female martial arts student Yuka. Later, at a karate tournament, Ling discovers that Yuka is a clone, part of a secret military project. But Ling has a secret of his own—he is a member of one of four clans in the Chinese mountains, descended from mythical beasts (in his case, the White Dragon) and endowed with psychic powers. He has been banished to Japan for killing a human, but his past is catching up with him. Based on a manga by Shu Katayama, serialized in Wings magazine, mixing romance and rough stuff.

Dragon Half *

1993. Video. dir: Shinya Sadamitsu. scr: Shinya Sadamitsu. des: Masahiro Koyama. ani: Masahiro Koyama. mus: Kohei Tanaka. prd: Production IG. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

Ruth the dragon-slayer falls in love with a dragon, and they settle down and produce a manic offspring called Mink, the titular dragon-half. The evil king plots to murder Ruth and take his wife for himself. Mink and her friends are obsessed with Dick Saucer, an idol singer who moonlights as a dragon-slayer. They try to get into his concert but are thwarted by Mink’s rival, Princess Vina, a half-blob girl resentful of her genetic inheritance. Eventually, Saucer squares off against Mink and is defeated with a laxative potion that sends him scurrying to the toilet. Based on a 1989 manga by Ryusuke Mita, Dragon Half is a fan favorite and deservedly so, with an energetic sense of fun that switches constantly between normal and squashed-down cartoon versions of the characters, playful satire straight out of Warner Bros. cartoon comedies like Road Runner, and a very Japanese sense of humor that includes children in a medieval village having to forage for food before they can listen to their new CD. Remembered less for its genuinely zany action than for the closing theme, which features Mink (played by Sailor Moon–actress Kotono Mitsuishi) singing a song about cooking to the tunes of Beethoven’s fifth, seventh, and ninth symphonies. It still makes the authors laugh even now; what can we say?

Dragon Knight *

1991. Video. dir: Jun Fukuda, Kaoru Toyooka. scr: Akira Hatta. des: Ako Sahara, Akira Kano. ani: Yuma Nakamura. mus: N/C. prd: Agent 21. 45 mins. x 4 eps., (v1), 30 mins. x 4 eps. (Wheel)

The knight Yamato Takeru must rescue a number of damsels in distress imprisoned in a demonic castle near Strawberry Fields. Although he has a reputation for ogling the naked charms of the women he saves, he wishes to save the one he genuinely loves. Based on the Masato “elf” Hiruta computer game in which defeating monsters was rewarded by pictures of girls in various states of undress.

Not to be confused with the unrelated Lord of Lords: Dragon Knight or with Yamato Takeru, which is slightly less unfaithful to Japanese myth. Only the first two parts were licensed in the U.S. In 1998 Pink Pineapple produced a four-episode sequel, Dragon Knight: Wheel of Time (Dragon Knight 4), based on the fourth game in the series. NV

Dragon League *

1993. TV series. dir: Nobuhiro Takamoto, Takashi Yamaguchi. scr: Hideki Mitsui, Kenichi Araki. des: Kazuyuki Kobayashi. ani: Kazuyuki Kobayashi, Hideo Kudasaka, Junichi Tokaibayashi. mus: N/C. prd: Studio Gallop, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 39 eps.

In a fantasy world populated by humans, animals, and dinosaurs, religion is based on soccer. Amon boasts that he is the greatest player in the world and trains his son, Tokio, in the forest until the boy is good enough to be considered “the second-greatest.” Amon takes his son to the kingdom of Elevenia, whose soccer team has won the Dragon League five years in a row. Settling an old rivalry, Amon is challenged to a rematch by Elevenia’s star player, Leon Legacius, who defeats him with the Golden Ball and turns him into a small dragon. If Tokio is ever to see his father in human form again, he must take over the local junior team and transform its players into winners, in a bizarre combination of Dragon Ball and Captain Tsubasa. Tokio’s relationship with Leon undergoes a transformation after Tokio defeats him in sudden-death overtime playoffs—Leon becomes Tokio’s mentor and later team coach when they are called upon to play against the hellspawn Warriors of Darkness. A similar angle on sports-as-worship appears in Galactic Pirates, though later episodes take a far darker turn. Presaging Battle Athletes, the entire religion is revealed as an attempt to hold off invasion—real dragons from an alternate dimension have given King Win of Elevenia a single generation to train a team that can hold off their champion players. The grand finale features a literal death match, as stone “Death Dragons” destroy a city every time the dragon-team scores a goal, while Tokio’s team desperately fights a losing battle.

Dragon Pink *

1994. Video. dir: Wataru Fujii, Hitoshi Takai. scr: Itoyoko. des: Ito-yoko. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Pink Pineapple, AIC. 35 mins. x 3 eps.

A fantasy sex romp about slave girl Pink putting on the cursed Panties of Torajima and literally becoming a sex kitten. Pink and her master, Santa the swordsman, must fight their way through the forest of Tajif with elfin sorcerer Pierce and Bobo the barbarian. The gang track a monster in episode two, but have to leave Pink as a security deposit at an inn when they run out of jewelry to barter. The final part has the heroes rescued by Pierce’s magic, but from an unexpected source.

Based on the Itoyoko manga, serialized in Penguin Club and Hot Shake magazines, that quickly spawned a computer game, a garage kit, this inevitable anime adaptation, and the question on everyone’s lips—was “dragon” ’90s Japanese slang for “soft-core”? LNV

Dragon Rider *

1995. Video. dir: Katsumasa Kanezawa. scr: Tetsuya Taiseki. des: Tomo Kino. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Pink Pineapple. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

In Carnus village, the beautiful Callis is powerless to prevent the death of her mother, though she herself is saved by Ryke, a would-be dragon rider searching for a suitable mount. In this porno anime based on a manga in Comic Papipo, Callis transforms into a Red Dragon when she gets passionate or angry, and a different kind of mounting soon ensues. NV

Dragon Slayer *

1992. jpn: Dragon Slayer: Eiyu Den­setsu: Oji no Tabitachi. aka: Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes: Voyages of the Prince. Video. dir: Tadayuki Nakamura. scr: Kenichi Matsuzaki. des: Ken Ishikawa, Hisashi Hirai. ani: Hisashi Hirai. mus: Fujio Sakai. prd: Amuse Video. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

Faaren is a peaceful and happy realm ruled by a wise king, until the Demon Lord Ackdam invades with his black legions and terrifying dragon, killing the king and capturing the queen. Aswel’s last brave old knight, Rias, spirits young Prince Sirius to safety. Ten years later, the teenaged Sirius returns to help Faaren’s peasants overthrow Ackdam, slaying Ackdam’s demon-baron Zanji at a mine. In revenge, Ackdam sends his chief henchman, Zagi, who transforms into a giant fire-breathing dragon. Zagi slays Rias and captures Sirius. But Sirius is rescued from Ackdam’s dungeon by Ryunan, a brave knight from a neighboring kingdom, who is organizing Faaren’s peasant rebellion. Sirius is taken to the rebellion’s headquarters under the command of Rias’s twin brother, Aaron (a good way to have a tragic death scene without losing the character). Aaron’s granddaughter, the tomboyish Sonya (combination comic relief and love interest), a wizard-in-training, nurses Sirius back to health and demands to join the boys in slaying Ackdam’s orcish minions. The rebellion grows so serious that Ackdam threatens to execute Queen Felicia the next day if Sirius does not surrender. This sets the deadline for the final attack on Ackdam’s castle. In preparation, Sonya has Sirius escort her to “the abandoned Temple of the Old Ones” (apparently copied from photos of Mayan temple ruins) where she can get a mystic weapon that will ensure Ackdam’s defeat. She does not tell Sirius that the weapon is a dragon that she will animate with her soul, giving up her human form forever.

At the grand climactic battle, supporting-character wizard Roe reveals that he and Ackdam were classmates in magic school, and it is his duty to personally destroy Ackdam for betraying his vows to use his powers for good. The Sonya-dragon kills the Zagi-dragon, and the strength of Sirius’s love for Sonya restores her human body. At the last minute, Ackdam breaks free of Roe and flees. While the rest of the party sets off in pursuit, leading-man Sirius elects to stay behind with his mother and help rule the kingdom, in the only unexpected twist to a standard fantasy template.

An early release for the U.S. company Urban Vision, DS features an early example of so-bad-it’s-good dialogue, with priceless gems such as, “Your reign of terror is nearing its end, you dog!”, and the unforgettable, “Now you die, hellspawn creature!”

Dragon Warrior *

1989. jpn: Dragon Quest. TV series. dir: Rintaro, Takayuki Kanda, Katsu­hisa Yamada, Nobutaka Nishizawa. scr: Takashi Yamada, Sukehiro Tomita, Nobuaki Kishima. des: Akira Toriyama, Yasushi Nagaoka. ani: Takeyuki Kanda, Hiroshi Kanezawa. mus: Koichi Sugiyama. prd: Studio Comet, Toei, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 32 eps., 25 mins. x 48 eps., 40 mins. x 2 films.

Sixteen-year-old Abel, sorcerer Janac, and Daisy the swordswoman are in search of eternal life, for which they will have to drink a dragon’s blood. Baramos is their enemy, a creature from the undersea kingdom of Estarkh so accustomed to pollution that it is unable to tolerate clean water. Seeking to summon the Great Dragon to lay waste to the world, Baramos kidnaps Abel’s childhood sweetheart, Tiala, who is the guardian of the summoning jewel “the Red Stone.”

Based on the 1985 Dragon Quest computer game created for the MSX computer and NES console game, several games and the first part of the anime, DQ: Legend of Abel, were released in the U.S. by Saban but sank without a trace. In Japan, anime and game were far more successful, kicking off the vogue for computerized “role-playing games” that would culminate in Final Fantasy and Pokémon. The U.S. dub by Saban ended after 13 shuffled episodes, with the party reaching the Tower of Najimi. It also replaced the soundtrack and some of the series’ more adult elements: a scene in Port Myla where Abel is propositioned by a whore is altered to an unconvincing conversation about bullfighting.

The series went much further in Japan, following the Legend of Abel story arc in 1991 with the Adventure of Dai. Set, like Lodoss War, suitably long after an earlier legend, it features Dai, a young boy raised on the island of Demurin, where many monsters were said to have been banished by an ancient hero. The sorcerer Aban and his apprentice Poppu arrive on the island, looking for the demon lord Hadora, who is coming back from the dead. Aban sacrifices himself to save Dai and Poppu, and the boys continue Aban’s quest. Dai’s adventures were much longer-running than his predecessor’s and also spun off into Yoshiki Shibata’s 40-minute feature version DQ: Disciple of Aban (1992). Much later, the manga published to explain the plot of another DQ game was also made into a feature, DQ: Crest of Roto (1996), directed by Tsukasa Sunaga.

Dragonar

1987. jpn: Kiko Senki Dragonar. aka: Armored Chronicle Dragonar; Metal Armor Dragonar. TV series. dir: Takeyuki Kanda. scr: Fuyunori Gobu. des: Kenichi Onuki, Kunio Okawara. ani: Hirokazu Endo, Masami Obari. mus: Toshiyuki Watanabe, Kentaro Haneda. prd: Sunrise, Nagoya TV (TV Asahi). 25 mins. x 48 eps.

The Imperial Giganos Empire is invading planet Earth, and the multiethnic Kain, Tapp, and Lyte, with their female foils, Linda and Rose, steal the Dragonar Metalli-Armor from the enemy and turn it against them. The pesky kids are then “bonded” to their weapons, and the Earth military is forced to work with them, in this series which Sunrise hoped would be the “new Gundam.” It wasn’t, though it was certainly an improvement on Double Zeta Gundam, which it immediately followed on Japanese TV. Several readers have complained that Dragonar deserves better treatment.

Dragon’s Heaven

1988. Video. dir: Makoto Kobayashi, Shigeru Fukumoto. scr: N/C. des: Makoto Kobayashi, Toshiyuki Hirano, Kimitoshi Yamane. ani: Itaru Saito. mus: N/C. prd: Artmic, AIC. 45 mins.

A great war in 3195 destroys most of civilization when the robot servants of human armies run out of control. The robot Shaian lies dormant for a thousand years after the death of its operator but is accidentally reactivated by a girl, Ikaru, while she scavenges for a living after her family’s death at the hands of the Brazilian army. Shaian wishes to avenge himself on the Brazilians’ leader, Elmedyne, and enlists the help of the human in order to ensure he operates at top capacity. The victorious couple go off into the ruins together, in an anime with the weirdest robot designs until Evangelion.

Dragoon *

1997. jpn: Ryuki Dengyo. aka: Legend of the Dragon Machine. Video. dir: Kenichi Maejima. scr: Ryota Dezaki. des: Shino Takada, Satoshi Nishimura. ani: Masami Nagata. mus: Harukichi Yamamoto. prd: KSS. 30 mins. x 3 eps.

May has blue hair, red eyes, a corpse-like pallor, and is the key to a powerful military device controlled by her father. She escapes from her captors and bumps into Sedon Calibre, a noble squire who takes up his father’s sword and leads her to her destiny. This, it would seem, involves giving her an incongruous stripey hat to wear and some low-rent swashbuckling as they run away from Incompetent Soldiers and The Man Who Almost Killed His Father, while an Annoying Little Sister tags along for comic relief. Characters say things like, “He destroyed my village. He murdered my entire family. He’s evil incarnate,” and there’s a bit of sub-Jedi bullshit about wielding a sword with your heart.

Harmless hokum, marred only by stingy cost-cutting that renders almost all the battle sequences as freeze-frames or close-ups (presumably the savings were used to throw in a little more fan-service nudity since it seems May has a magical ability that causes her clothes to fall off). Sadly, it only ends with a partial resolution, revealing its origins as a marketing tool designed to drum up interest in the sequel to the original PC game. While the Japanese audience was able to enjoy the spin-off novel, both PC adventures, and a radio drama based on the story, U.S. fans are left with a bum deal, though distributor ADV wisely crammed all three episodes onto a single tape. The virtual absence of the titular “dragon machine” artifact is also rather disappointing, as if Akira had failed to make an appearance in the film that bears his name. Not much better than Panzer Dragoon, but three times as long. N

Dream Crayon Kingdom

1997. jpn: Yume no Crayon Okoku. TV series. dir: Junichi Sato. scr: Takashi Yamada, Yumi Kageyama. des: Akira Inagami. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Toei, TV Asahi. 25 mins. x 65 eps.

Princess Crayon must journey to 12 magical points to help her parents from the mountains to the seaside. She meets queens in different kingdoms, all the while traveling through space and time. Each four or five episodes constitute a “month” of both show and broadcast time, and Crayon’s adventures are timed to coincide with real events, such as Christmas, New Year’s, and the arrival of spring. Based on a children’s book by Reimi Fukunaga and drawn by Moon Bunny Egg Princess–manga artist Michiru Kataoka. Not to be confused with Crayon Shin-chan!

Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora *

1985. jpn: Mu Jigen Hunter Fandora. Video. dir: Kazuyuki Okaseko, Shi-
genori Kageyama. scr: Hirokazu Mizude, Takashi Yamada. des: Hideki Tamura, Eiko Yamauchi. ani: Masahiro Shita, Hiroyuki Ikegami. mus: Nozomu Aoki. prd: Hero Media, Kaname Pro. 45 mins. x 3 eps.

In dimensional year 2002, the ability to warp between new dimensions has created new customs and new criminals. The overworked Dimensional Police Force turns to bounty hunters for help, including Fandora and her partner, Quest (a shape-shifting dragon), who go to the oppressed dimension of Lem in search of rogue crook Red-Eye Geran. Later episodes center on lovers Soto and Fontaine, who are separated when galactic criminal Yog Sothoth destroys the Deadlander dimension. Desiring Fandora’s Red Rupee gem, Sothoth tricks Soto into stealing it by telling him that balance can be restored if it is brought to him. Fandora stops Soto before he can unite the Red Rupee with the “Blue God’s” Blue Rupee, but she is trapped in Sothoth’s lair. Created by Devilman’s Go Nagai specifically for video. Yog Sothoth is a sly nod to the works of H.P. Lovecraft, also referenced in Iczer-One and Armitage III.

Using many crew members from Go Nagai’s Dynamic Productions (hence the Nagai-esque look), DDHF was released in an English-dubbed version, by Bavi Stock–producer Hiromasa Shibazaki, who hoped to jump-start an American commercial anime video market by selling an English dub by mail order from Japan. The lack of advertising, paucity of U.S. fans at the time, and the high price killed that experiment. However, DDHF was not particularly helped by the horrible quality of the dub itself—Fandora and Quest have very artificial, haughty English accents; a medieval innkeeper’s voice is a bad W. C. Fields imitation; and the Chief of the Dimensional Police talks like a rural cop from the American South. Compare to Cipher, which was also released in English in Japan but with no intention of reaching the U.S. market.

Dream Hunter Rem

1986. Video. dir: Satoru Kumazaki, Kiyoshi Nagao, Shinji Okuda. scr: Shinji Okuda. des: Kazuaki Mori, Masami Aisakata, Akira Inoue. ani: Moriyasu Taniguchi, Masahide Yanasawa. mus: Heitaro Manabe. prd: Project Team Nagahisa Kikan, Studio Zain. 45 mins. x 5 eps., 45 mins. x 2 eps. (v2).

The insomniac little girl Rem develops the power to enter other people’s dreams and earns a living as a private investigator, accompanied by her dog, Alpha, and cat, Beta, who appear as a puppy and kitten in the real world but transform into a fierce giant wolf and cougar when Rem enters people’s dreams. Her first mission is against the “Death God” who appears to be possessing a young girl’s dreams and driving Rem to commit murder. In episode two, she investigates a series of murders at a high school rumored to be the work of the ghost of a girl who was held prisoner and died in the clock tower. The first series ends with a traditional ghost story, as Rem must fight the jealous spirit of a Taira warrior executed there many centuries earlier. Two further episodes that were pastiches of famous horror novels, New DHR, followed in 1990 and 1992, with Okuda writing and directing. In the first, a Dracula rip-off, Rem must discover why the pretty young Mina has developed sleeping-sickness. In the second, she journeys to the small Alpine city-state of Franken, where a Dr. Victor is troubled by dreams of a robot man called Julian. The sequels had their own subtitles, The Knights Around Her Bed (1990, Yume no Kishi-tachi) and Massacre in the Phantasmic Labyrinth (1992, Satsuriku no Mugen Meikyu).

Like Project A-Ko, DHR was originally planned as an erotic video series but released into the mainstream without undue nudity as the creative climate changed during the 1980s. She gets her name from the acronym for “rapid eye movement,” a phenomenon of light sleepers. A combination of the magical girl and teen ghost-hunter genres.

Dream-Star Button Nose

1985. jpn: Yume no Hoshi Button Nose. TV series. dir: Masami Hata, Toshio Takeuchi, Katsuhisa Yamada, Kazuyuki Hirokawa. scr: Tomoko Konparu, Hideo Takayashiki, Kenji Terada. des: Akiyo Hirose, Masami Hata. ani: Maya Matsuyama, Kazuyuki Omori. mus: Kohei Tanaka. prd: Sanrio, TV Asahi. 25 mins. x 26 eps.

The first TV series from the merchandise-led Sanrio studio, Button Nose was two years in the making. Button is an eight-year-old girl who lives at the Ichigo research institute. Her father invites space travelers from Hookland on planet Kalinto, but they arrive while he is away, so Button takes his place, accompanied by her pet, Franklyn (a pink kangaroo/mouse). With King Fastener of Hookland, Button sets off on the long journey to Kalinto.

Dreamy Urashima

1925. jpn: Nonki na Tosan Ryugu Mairi. aka: Carefree Father in the Palace of the Dragon King. Movie. dir: Hakusan Kimura. scr: N/C. des: N/C. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: N/C. ca. 5 mins.

Carefree Father is an old, bespectacled man in a bowler hat, patterned kimono, and black haori overcoat, who loves having fun and shirks work whenever he can. One day he finds himself in a turtle taxi, which takes him underwater to the palace of the Dragon King. There, he is feted and entertained by the Dragon King’s beautiful daughter and her geisha-like serving girls, but the allure soon fades, and he asks to be allowed to return home. As he leaves, the Dragon King’s daughter gives him a casket that he should not open, but once home the curious old man is unable to resist peering inside. A demon jumps out and demands that he pay his palace bill. Realizing it was only a dream, Carefree Father resolves to work harder, in a modern refashioning of Urashima Taro (see Japanese Folk Tales).

“Carefree Father” was the first true manga icon, a comedy figure created by Yutaka Aso for the Hochi Shinbun newspaper in January 1924. He enjoyed immense success in a Japan struggling to recover from the catastrophic Great Kanto Earthquake. Carefree Father’s popularity was aided greatly by the absence of any copyright enforcement on cartoon characters at the time, spinning off into dolls, character goods, and this one-reel movie, none of which appear to have involved the character’s original creator, either creatively or in the sharing of the profits. However, such issues only applied in the world of comics—music copyright enforcement was already much stricter, as the makers of Madame Butterfly would discover to their cost.

Drifting Clouds

1982. jpn: Ukigumo. Movie. dir: Mori Masaki. scr: Chiku Yamatoya. des: George Akiyama. ani: Kazuo Tomisawa, Kuni Tomita, Nobuko Yuasa. mus: Seiji Yokoyama. prd: Madhouse, Toei. 91 mins.

A period-drama with real historical figures, in the style of the later Tree in the Sun. Ukigumo, a merchant in old-time Tokyo, leaves the running of his company to his wife and assistant and drifts “free as a cloud.” He saves Ryoma Sakamoto (see Oi! Ryoma) from an attack in the street, and Sakamoto entertains Ukigumo’s family with his vision of a future Japan. Ukigumo’s son, Shinnosuke, is inspired by Ryoma, but Ryoma is inspired by Ukigumo, and announces that he plans to renounce his way of life and leave the Shinsengumi organization. Later that year, Ukigumo hears that Ryoma has been assassinated. Based on George Akiyama’s monstrously long-running 1973 manga, still going in Big Comic, and placed incongruously on a double bill with the Goshogun movie.

DT Eightron

1998. TV series. dir: Tetsuro Amino. scr: Hideki Kakinuma, Toshimitsu Himeno. des: Yoshi Tanaka. ani: Yoshi Tanaka. mus: Hiroyuki Nanba. prd: Sunrise, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 26 eps.

In the computer-controlled state of Datania, schoolboy Shu resolves to escape from the oppressive city life and joins the resistance movement known as the Returners. He fights Datania with the super-android Eightron, which was created by applying powerful energies to a pile of junk. Logan’s Run meets Evangelion in this earnest but hackneyed replay.

Du Ziqun

1981. jpn: To Shishun. TV special. dir: Hideo Nishimaki. scr: Takeshi Shudo. des: Yoshio Kabashima. ani: Yoshio Kabashima. mus: Naoki Yamamoto. prd: Tohoku, TBS. 84 mins.

In late Tang-dynasty China, Du Ziqun’s mother, Bailian, is abducted by robbers. Twelve years later, the teenage Ziqun is leading a gang of thieves in nearby Luoyang, but he despairs of humanity and decides to become a hermit, putting himself through many trials, including a vow of utter silence. Based on the 1920 short story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the story was animated a second time for the Classic Children’s Tales series (1992) as a 30-minute stop-motion short released straight to video.

Dual *

1999. jpn: Dual! Parallel Trouble [Runrun] Adventure. TV series. dir: Katsu-
hito Akiyama. scr: Yosuke Kuroda. des: Atsushi Okuda, Kenji Teraoka, Yasushi Muraki. ani: Atsushi Okuda. mus: Seiko Nagaoka. prd: AIC, Pioneer, WOWOW. 25 mins. x 13 eps., 25 mins. x 1
ep (v).

When he uncovers a strange artifact at a construction site, a worker accidentally splits the universe into two parallel continua. In one universe, the artifact is used to develop human technology in strange and new directions; in the other, life continues as normal. Twenty-two years later in the everyday world, Professor Sanada tries to prove the existence of a parallel universe. His daughter, Mitsuki, tells him about the visions of schoolboy Kazuki, who claims to see giant robots fighting in the streets. Accidentally triggering the professor’s device, Kazuki finds himself in the parallel-world where the evil Rara is trying to conquer the world. Kazuki also learns that the parallel Prof. Sanada has gotten the UN’s backing to create an Earth Defense Command to stop Rara, and that Mitsuki transported to this world the month before. She has had time to introduce herself to the parallel of her father, who is a bachelor in this world and has been too busy fighting evil to develop a similar parallel world technology to send her home. Sanada accepts the obligation of adopting Mitsuki, also making her a robot pilot in the EDC. When they find that Kazuki has arrived and can also fly a robot, they enlist him, too.

Dual was Pioneer’s entry in the race to duplicate Evangelion, stealing plots, moods, characters, shots, and even set designs from the 1995 smash and adding half a dozen pretty girls straight out of their own Tenchi Muyo! franchise. The show adds some clever identity crises—Kazuki is the only person who does not exist in the parallel world that includes evil versions of love interest Mitsuki and her mother. With a passionless, suicidal girl (the cyborg D, last remnant of a lost civilization), young pilots forced to share a house, and Eva-like robots, its reverse-engineered origins are clear, but the slick marketing savvy of producers Toru Miura and Kazuaki Morijiri ensure that nothing gets taken too far. People don’t get killed (at least not permanently), jokiness often takes precedence over drama, and a happy ending restores everything to almost normal, with Kazuki surrounded by adoring girls. Careful integration of computer graphics makes for some good robot battles, but much of the design in Dual seems a little too sparse; the scenes often seem too uncluttered, giving the show a sanitized look to match its sanitized plot. Thankfully, it also lacks Evangelion’s messy ending, though after a denouement seemingly shot on the same road-bridge that closes Serial Experiments Lain, a final episode on video threatens an as-yet-unmade sequel.

Duel Masters *

2002. TV series, movie. dir: Haruro Suzuki. scr: Satoru Nishizono, Kenichi Kanemaki, Masanao Akahoshi. des:
N/C. ani: N/C. mus: Junichi Igarashi. prd: Shogakukan. 25 mins. x 48 eps. (TV), ca. 80 mins. (m).

Shobu Kirifuda is a fan of a card game called Duel Masters, in which the monsters on the cards actually come to life and fight. He hopes one day to become as good at the game as his father, who is missing, presumed dead. He is educated in his gaming skills by a mystery man known only as “Knight,” and attends big matches in the company of his friends, Rekuta the eternal loser and Mimi the sparky girl. In the American release of the series, their ability was termed kaijudo, the “way of the monster,” although this term does not exist in the Japanese original. Remarkable for the enthusiastic way it attempts to make the sight of children playing cards interesting, although the authors dread the day when someone tries to animate paint drying. A manga by Shigenobu Matsumoto was serialized in Coro Coro Comic, and a movie version followed in 2005. Compare to Yugi-oh.

Dumpling Brothers, The

1999. jpn: Dango San Kyodai. aka: Three Dumpling Brothers. TV series. dir: Masahiko Sato. scr: Masahiko Sato. des: Masahiko Sato. ani: Masahiko Sato, Masanobu Uchino, Noriko Akiho. mus: N/C. prd: NHK. 3 mins. x ca. 50 eps.

Ichiro Kushidango, middle brother Jiro, and youngest brother Saburo are dumplings who first appeared in a popular song in 1999, inspired by commercial director Masahiko Sato, who wondered which of the three dumplings on his lunchtime skewer was the oldest. It first aired as the “January song” on the children’s show Okaasan to Issho (With Mama), which often uses animation to provide visuals to accompany its tunes. Something in it caught the attention of parents and children; quite possibly a postmodern nostalgia on the part of parents from larger families who knew that their own smaller family units would never boast three siblings—compare to Bubu Chacha, which similarly yearned for the days when children had someone to play with. After the song became a runaway hit, selling more than three million copies in Japan, the brothers were brought back for a series of inserts in the show from October 1999 to March 2004. They sometimes shared the screen with their female friend Mochiyo Sakura (rice cake wrapped in a cherry leaf) and their buddies the Teacup Brothers. Their enemy is the double-flavored ice cream Vanilla and Mocha, while they are occasionally supported by dumpling shop owners as backing dancers. Each episode was very short and implied very limited animation, with basic repetitions easily forgiven by a young audience, although when released out of context on two compilation DVDs, it often simply looked cheap. Some producers believed that it was the food theme that made the difference, leading to imitators like Kappamaki and the Sushi Kids, although such things are nothing new in Japanese animation. Compare to Tomato-man.

Dunbine *

1983. jpn: Seisenshi Dunbine. aka: Holy Warrior Dunbine, Aura Battler Dunbine. TV series, video. dir: Yoshiyuki Tomino, Toshifumi Takizawa. scr: Yoshiyuki Tomino, Sukehiro Tomita, Yuji Watanabe. des: Yukien Hirogawa, Yutaka Izubuchi. ani: Hiroyuki Kitazume. mus: Katsuyuki Ono, Tatsumi Yano. prd: Sunrise, Nagoya TV (TV Asahi). 25 mins. x 49 eps. (TV), 75 mins. x 3 eps. (Tales), 25 mins. x 3 eps. (Garzey), 30 mins. x 6 eps. (Wings).

Japanese boy Sho Zama is transported to the alternate world of Byston Well because his human “aura” will make him a powerful robot pilot in Drake Luft’s quest to rule the planet. However, Sho defects to the other side and leads the resistance, until his former employers, fighting a rearguard action, open a gateway through to our world and begin a second conquest.

Inspired by Wings of Lin, an earlier novel by Gundam-creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, Dunbine shares its stablemate’s concentration on big robots (a studio addition not in the original) and heavy character development. It was soon remade by Toshifumi Takizawa as a three-part video series incorporating designs from Patlabor’s Yutaka Izubuchi. The new series, Aura Battler Dunbine: Tale of Neo Byston Well (1987), featured more expensive animation and robots with literally scintillating armor. The original Dunbine designer Shott Weapon is thrown through a time warp at the end of the TV series to arrive in Byston Well 700 years later. He brings with him a veritable battalion of Earth weaponry, including a fully laden aircraft carrier, and the locals must form a new resistance to stop him. Although the video series only consisted of 75 minutes of footage, the series was stretched out three times as long with the aid of digest versions of the previous TV episodes.

Much later, in the wake of the similar Escaflowne, Tomino would adapt the robot-free Wings of Lin itself into a video anime, the truly awful three-parter Garzey’s Wing (1996). Chris, a Japanese teenager, loses half his soul when he is summoned to Byston Well by the priestess Hassan. The Meitomias tribe wishes to escape from Ashigaba slavers, and Chris is to be their champion. He guides them through their flight to their promised land, fighting off Roman-armored, dinosaur-riding Ashigabas, while the Tokyo half of his soul sends telepathic messages about such topics as how to make gunpowder. This show is very cheaply animated and shoddily written, and, though this was the only part of the series to be released in the U.S., the poor quality of the dub makes it almost unwatchable. A further sequel, Wings of Leen (2005), was premiered on the Internet in six parts.

Dvine [Luv] *

2001. jpn: D+Vine [Luv]. Video. dir: N/C. scr: N/C. des: N/C. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Pink Pineapple. 30 mins. x 4 eps.

Treasure hunter Hyde and his sidekick Sakura go in search of “the treasures of the old world,” the first turning out to be a naked girl encased in ice not unlike the one to be found in Kama Sutra. Cursed during his misadventures, Hyde is forced to seek an exorcism from local priestess Manatee, who becomes uncontrollably lustful as a result of the spell, and has sex with him in order to calm down. A series of other picaresque encounters soon follow, as Hyde rescues, is rescued, kidnaps, or is kidnapped by a series of women and ends up having sex with them as payment, or as atonement, or as punishment, or simply because they feel like it. Hyde saves a girl from a life-threatening disease, and then eases the side effects of the potion by having sex with her. He is then able to fight the evil wizard Slaine, take his mighty sword Stormbringer (no, really), and find the legacy of the old world. LNV

Dynagiga

1998. jpn: Chokido Densetsu Dynagiga. aka: Super Robot Legend Dynagiga. Video. dir: Naoyuki Yoshinaga. scr: N/C. des: Tada Miura. ani: Yoshiko Su­gai. mus: N/C. prd: Studio Deen. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

An anime series that began life on the TV variety program What’s Up, Shibuya?, it’s set in a near future when robots are commonplace and follows the lives and loves of a group of high school girls as they try to get their robot licenses—driving school with giant robots. Allegedly an experiment to discover new talent in voice acting and design, though cynics might suggest that amateur nights always have cheaper staff.