I am a Cat
1982. jpn: Wagahai wa Neko de Aru. TV special. dir: Rintaro. scr: Kiyohide Ohara. des: Kazuo Komatsubara, Haru-ki Yoshimi. ani: Kazuo Komatsubara. mus: Antonio Vivaldi. prd: Toei, Fuji TV. 73 mins.
“I” is a cat without a name who lives with an English teacher, Mr. Kushami (Mr. Sneeze). “I” can’t believe how stupid human beings are and chronicles some of their more incredible foibles. In particular, he is fascinated by Kushami’s pupil Mizushima, who falls in love with Haruko, only daughter of war profiteer Kaneda. Based on the 1905 novel by Botchan-author Soseki Natsume, this adaptation gained a huge 27.8% rating when broadcast. The feline character designs were by Jarinko Chie’s Haruki Yoshimi.
I am a Dog
1983. jpn: Wagahai wa Inu de Aru: Don Matsugoro no Monogatari. aka: I Am a Dog: The Story of Don Matsugoro. TV special. dir: Kimio Yabuki. scr: Kiyohide Ohara. des: Haruki Yoshimi. ani: Takashi Abe. mus: Hiroki Takaragi. prd: Toei, Fuji TV. 73 mins.
Mr. Matsuzawa is a novelist who lives in Chiba Prefecture. Only his daughter Kazuko knows that the family dog, Don Matsugoro, can talk. Don is wounded in a fight with the neighbors’ dog, King, a nouveau-riche mongrel with ideas above his station. At the vet, however, he falls in love with a little patchwork puppy called Chotaro. A less successful follow-up to the previous year’s I Am a Cat; some of the same team from that show adapted Hisashi Inoue’s novel The Life of Don Matsugoro, changing the title to imply a connection that simply wasn’t there.
I Dream of Mimi *
1997. jpn: Buttobi CPU. Video. dir: Masamitsu Hidaka. scr: Atsuhiro Tomioka. des: Yuriko Chiba. ani: Yuriko Chiba. mus: N/C. prd: Pink Pineapple, KSS. 30 mins. x 3 eps.
In this erotic comedy based on the Young Animal strip from Area 88–creator Kaoru Shintani, a hapless boy finds himself in possession of Mimi, a new model of “sexy computer.” Biocomputer Mimi must fend off romantic rivals such as the Nac sisters and the superpowered Performa Girl, while her man Akira looks on shyly like the hero of Handmaid May, Metal Angel Marie, and any number of similar geek-meets-love-toy shows. N
I Give My All
1987. jpn: Minna Agechau. aka: I’ll Do It with Anyone; Everybody’s Doing It. Video. dir: Osamu Uemura. scr: Yutaka Takahashi. des: Takumi Tsukasa. ani: Takafumi Hayashi. mus: Hiromoto Tobisawa. prd: Animate Film, JC Staff. 45 mins.
Mutsuro has been forced to take a “ronin” year off to study for retaking his university entrance exams. Resorting to self-abuse in his lonely room, he attracts the attentions of lonely neighbor Yuno, the bored daughter of a rich corporate magnate. The two are soon in bed together, though Yuno’s interfering grandmother decides that she should make an honest man out of Mutsuro and give him a job in Daddy’s company. Based on the 1982 manga by Hikari Yuzuki, serialized in Young Jump, this well-animated soft-core story premiered on a double bill with Digital Devil Story. N
I Like the Naniwabushi
1982. jpn: Naniwabushi Daisuki. TV series. dir: Takashi Sawada. scr: Kiyohiro Yamamoto. des: N/C. ani: Norio Takahashi. mus: N/C. prd: Kansai TV, Tohan Planning, Fuji TV. 54 mins.
Two stories that mix animation with naniwabushi (storytelling accompanied by shamisen playing). One is a tale of General Nogi, the famous suicide, visiting the shrines at Ise on his way to Nagoya, while his wife is mistaken for a commoner as she books into a hotel. The second story is of a sumo wrestling trainee, ridiculed by his fellows, who trains hard and avenges himself—the standard clichés of a sports anime, just with plink-plonky music on top of it.
I Love You *
2001. jpn: Sukidayo. Video. dir: Haruo Okawara. scr: Rokurota Makabe. des: Aoi Kimizuka. ani: Haruo Okawara.
mus: Yoshi. prd: YOUC, Digital Works (Vanilla Series). 30 mins. x 2 eps.
Jun and Hijiri, his Sexfriend, are enjoying themselves in bed when Jun realizes that he wants more to life than casual encounters. He yearns for true romance, and anime tradition dictates that likely candidates will arise in the form of his childhood friends, Ren and her sister Rina. He is mistaken for a pervert on a train by Mina, a third girl who turns out to be the younger sister of the others, who was separated from them by the conditions of their parents’ divorce. Sub–Love Hina romantic entanglements ensue, with plenty of sex, until Jun eventually ends up in bed with Mina—all antagonism between them is dispelled when she is helping out in her mother’s coffee shop and is consequently dressed as a waitress. However, their relationship begins to turn sour when old photos reveal that Mina may not be who she says she is—she looks far too young in the old pictures to be the person that she claims to be. Another entry in the Vanilla Series. LNV
I Saw the Lazybones
1988. jpn: Namakemono o Miteta. Video. dir: Akinori Nagaoka, Masami Furukawa. scr: Takashi Murakami. des: Takashi Murakami. ani: Kinichiro Suzuki. mus: N/C. prd: Toei, Agent 21. 30 mins. x 2 eps.
In this short comedy based on a gag manga by Takashi Murakami originally serialized in Young Jump, a koala robs a bank to help poverty-stricken pandas. Listed as a “movie” in some Japanese sources, even though the package clearly states “original video anime.”
Ichi the Killer *
2002. jpn: Koroshiya Ichi. aka: Ichi The Killer The Animation: Episode Zero. Video. dir: Shinji Ishidaira. scr: Sakichi Sato. des: Tsuneo Ninomiya. ani: Masanori Ohara. mus: Yu Takase. prd: Shogakukan, Amuse. 50 mins.
Quiet schoolboy Ichi must put up with constant abuse from his classmates, but never does anything to stand up to them. Beaten and attacked at school, he then returns home to a tongue lashing from his parents who criticize him harshly before running off to their bedroom for another noisy sex session with ropes and whips. Ichi stoically endures such torments until the night he finds a wounded animal in the road. He goes to help it, but the confused creature bites him, causing Ichi to snap. Years of pent-up aggression come to the fore as he literally kicks the animal inside out, discovering in the process that he gets a thrill out of dealing death.
Some years later, an amnesiac Ichi is being cared for in a mental asylum. All memories of his earlier life having been blocked out, he has been forced to start again from scratch and has the mind of a six-year-old in an adult body. His parole officer Kakihara finds him work placement at a karate hall, hoping that the discipline of a martial art will help bring Ichi back into society. Instead, it sets him on a series of encounters that reawaken the psychopath within, setting him up for a life as a brutal assassin.
A prequel spin-off of Takashi Miike’s violent movie Ichi the Killer (2001), itself based on a manga by Hideo Yamamoto, Ichi refashions the tropes of teen revenge for a new generation who has never heard of Urotsukidoji or, for that matter, the original Count of Monte Cristo that informed Gankutsuou. However, this story ditches fantastic or science fictional trappings in favor of the methods of live-action cinema: shaky-cam effects and moments of surreal magic realism to illustrate Ichi’s inner torment. Limited animation is compensated by the liberal use of red paint; there is a great deal of violence. Miike himself voices the pivotal role of Kakihara. LNV
Iczer-One *
1985. jpn: Tatakae! Iczer-1; Boken! Iczer-3; Iczer Gal Iczelion. aka: Fight! Iczer-1; Adventure! Iczer-3; Iczelion; Iczer Saga. Video. dir: Toshihiro Hirano, Hideaki Hisashi. scr: Toshihiro Hirano, Arii Emu (“REM”). des: Toshihiro Hirano, Chuichi Watanabe, Masanori Nishii, Hiroaki Motoigi, Shinji Aramaki, Yasuhiro Moriki, Takashi Hashimoto. ani: Narumi Kakinouchi, Masami Obari, Hiroaki Ogami, Masanori Nishii, Takafumi Hashimoto. mus: Michiaki Watanabe, Takashi Kudo. prd: AIC, KSS. 30 mins. x 2 eps., 48 mins., 60 mins. x 3 eps., 30 mins. x 2 eps.
An alien ship carrying the survivors of the Cthulhu, a race of female clones, is taken over by the sinister entity Big Gold and heads for Earth. The Cthulhu (hastily and ineptly disguised as “Cutowolf” in early Western publicity to avoid copyright problems) seek a new home, and with Big Gold’s malign energy driving them, they decide that Earth will suit them nicely once they kick out the current occupants. One of the Cthulhu, Iczer-One, is willing to fight for Earth but must link up with the right human to help her power her mighty fighting machine, Iczer-Robo. The “right human” is Nagisa Kano, an ordinary Japanese schoolgirl who is so terrified by seeing her parents transformed into alien monsters and her world falling to pieces around her that she can do very little apart from quake in terror. Only when she unleashes the full force of her anger can she power the huge robot, but then she and Iczer-One are an unstoppable combination. The Cthulhu call on all their powers to warp dimensions, transform familiar objects and places into nightmarish threats, and send in gross, drooling monsters. At last, they even throw in Iczer-One’s nasty red-haired clone sister, Iczer-Two; but they can’t win against the love and trust between Nagisa and Iczer-One, since both are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save Earth.
Hirano’s dark, dank otherworld was based on a story by Rei Aran, with nightmarish references to the work of H. P. Lovecraft (see Armitage III). However, nameless terrors are hampered by the fact that the “unimaginable,” once animated, looks merely nasty, but Watanabe’s monsters are as well crafted as Aramaki’s fabulous robots. The script is loaded with homoerotic subtexts and sexualized cruelty, all the more effective for being less than completely explicit. Nagisa’s helpless terror is an understandable reaction to an extreme situation, rather than being an annoying character trait played up by writer and actress in the mistaken belief that helplessness is cute, and Iczer-One is the ideal heroine—brave, understanding, and determined. A shameless steal from the ending of Superman II doesn’t jibe but makes for a rather touching finale in which Nagisa, having given her all to save the world, is rewarded by getting her old life back and forgetting everything else, including the friend who would have died to save her.
Hirano returned to the concept with Iczer-3 (1990), toning down the violence but keeping the fan-service nudity. Big Gold was defeated but left many of her progeny still at large in the galaxy. Iczer-One has tracked them down and destroyed all but one, Neos Gold. After a terrible battle, both are wounded and agree to a truce to heal, after which they’ll settle things with a final fight. As Iczer-One withdraws to recoup her strength, Neos Gold cheats by sending her cohorts to soften up Earth for her attack, so the Cthulhu send prepubescent Iczer-3 to defend the planet until “big sister” recovers. With a descendant of Nagisa Kano and the crew of an Earth battle cruiser, Iczer-3 attempts to hold off the enemy with the Power of Cute. A helium-powered performance from wrestler Cuty Suzuki in the leading role took what had been a tale of nameless horrors into the realms of high camp, grounded by the reappearance of the two older Iczer clones for the final battle.
Hirano reworked the concept again as an armored-girl-team show in the manner of Bubblegum Crisis, first as a manga and then for the two-part video Iczelion (1994). For this resurrection, production moved to KSS, with Hashimoto and Masanori Nishii joining Hirano for design work. Nagisa Kai is an ordinary teenager until fate intervenes and makes her the chosen combat partner of an intelligent battlesuit. Iczel robots, useful entities in their own right, become Iczelion battlesuits when “fused” with their girl operatives in a nude transformation sequence. Together with three other young women, Nagisa must save Earth from subjugation by an invading alien army headed by Chaos and Cross, who have so far swept across the galaxy defeating all in their path. At first Nagisa is too terrified to fight and even separates from her Iczel in an attempt to escape, but when her friends at school are threatened, she decides she must save them. Once more, affection between girls wins the day, though the explicit lesbian overtones of the first series have been edged into the background. The two later incarnations lack the dark power of the first, moving the original concept in less adventurous directions, but the series remains a firm favorite with older fans. Iczer-3 was subsequently renamed Iczer Reborn in a 2003 U.S. DVD release—a smart move that helped offset some of the numerical confusion. LNV
Idol Angel Welcome Yoko
1990. jpn: Idol Tenshi Yokoso Yoko. aka: Hello Yoko. TV series. dir: Tetsuro Amino. scr: Takeshi Shudo. des: Studio Live. ani: Sanae Kobayashi. mus: Hideyuki Tanaka. prd: TSC, Quest, Ashi Pro, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 43 eps.
A unique addition to the magical-girl genre of Creamy Mami and its ilk, in which real-life idol Yoko Tanaka, along with her anime alter ego (also called Yoko Tanaka, but with different Chinese characters spelling out the name), must solve problems and get to the concerts on time.
IDOL FIGHTER SU-CHI-PAI *
1996. Video. aka: Idolfight Sweetypie II. dir: Yasunori Ide. scr: Yasunori Ide. des: Kenichi Sonoda, Yoshiko Sakurai. ani: Kunihiro Abe. mus: N/C. prd: Darts, Domu. 30 mins.
All Sweetypie has to do is wave her Sweetystick, and she turns into an avenging angel of love and justice. And with bondage-freak Cherrypie, alien superhero Milkypie (“Milky Change!”), emissary from Peachyland, Peachypie, and cyborg warrior Lemonpie (“Lemonade Transfer!”), you can bet that the streets are safe. One of many computer-game spin-offs (such as Graduation or Battle Team Lakers EX) that, perhaps wisely, dumped the gameplay and merely reassigned the characters to a more interesting situation. In this case, the stars of an obscure strip computer game, notable only for designs by Gunsmith Cats’ Kenichi Sonoda, are reassigned roles in a spoof of Sailor Moon. As with the Street Fighter II franchise, there was no Sweetypie “I” in anime form, a fact lampooned in the show’s subtitle: “Somehow this feels like the first episode.”
Idol of Darkness *
1997. jpn: Inju Nerawareta Idol. Video. dir: Susumu Aran. scr: N/C. des: N/C. ani: Lion Ginan. mus: N/C. prd: Pink Pineapple. 45 mins.
Lesbian goings-on as famous idol singer Rie initiates newcomer Ikumi in the pleasures of the flesh, much to the annoyance of her boyfriend, who always suspected the media was a corrupt world. Soon, onstage jealousies lead to the activation of a cursed wooden idol, which leads to more sex. N
Idol Project *
1995. Video. dir: Yasushi Nagaoka. scr: Toshimitsu Amano. des: Noritaka Suzuki. ani: Masahiko Murata. mus: Kanji Saito. prd: KSS. 30 mins. x
4 eps.
Fourteen-year-old Mimu Emilton wants to be an idol singer and applies for the Starland Festival, where the people’s next idol will be chosen. Inspired by her hologram pendant, which carries a pep talk from the last idol, Mimu learns from a number of other aspirants the various secrets of being an idol, including the power of a smile and the value of dance. A silly, perky anime based on a computer game in which the player’s job was to become the top idol singer.
If I See You in My Dreams
1998. jpn: Yume de Aetara. aka: If I See You in My Dream [sic]. Video. dir: Hiroshi Watanabe. scr: Nao Tokimura. des: Hiroshi Watanabe, Ryoichi Oki. ani: Ryoichi Oki. mus: Shigesato Kanezumi. prd: JC Staff, Shueisha, TBS, Tokuma Japan Communications. 30 mins. x 3 eps. (v), 8 mins. x 16 eps. (TV).
Twenty-four-year-old Masuo has never really talked to a girl, until the fateful day he meets the pretty Nagisa. As he begins a faltering attempt at seduction, illness finds him in a hospital bed on Christmas Eve, the traditional time for shy Japanese boys to pop the question. Nagisa makes it easier for him by visiting and staying till he confesses his love. Based on Noriyuki Yamahana’s manga, serialized in Business Jump.
Igano Kabamaru
1983. TV series. dir: Tameo Ogawa, Akinori Nagaoka, Tsutomu Shibayama, Keiji Hayakawa, Naoto Hashimoto. scr: Tokio Tsuchiya, Rei Akimoto, Shigeru Yanagawa, Tomomi Tsutsui. Hirokazu Kobayashi. des: Akio Hosoya. ani: Akio Hosoya, Kaworu Hirata, Keiko Yoshimoto. mus: Toshiyuki Omori. prd: Tohoku, NTV. 25 mins. x 24 eps.
Kabamaru is a new boy at high school, who cannot reveal to anyone that he is really the scion of an infamous ninja clan. He helps the kindly Mrs. Okubo, falls in love with her granddaughter, and is forced against his will to use his ninja skills in struggles against other schools, and his own corrupt principal. Yu Azuki, creator of Akanuke Ichiban, wrote this 1983 manga for Margaret magazine as a spoof of Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s 1961 ninja story Kagemaru the Ninja (Iga no Kagemaru).
IGPX *
2003. aka: Immortal Grand Prix. TV series. dir: Koichi Mashimo. scr: Koichi Mashimo, Yuki Arie. des: Tomoaki Kado. ani: Hiroshi Morioka, Shinya Kawatsura, Tomoyuki Kurokawa, Yuki Arie. mus: Fat Jon, Amon Tobin, Hint, Neotropic, Funki Porcini, Arata Iwashina. prd: Production IG, Cartoon Network. 5 mins x 5 eps (TV1), 25 mins x 24 eps (TV2), 25 mins. x 2 eps. (v).
Conceived as a coproduction between the Cartoon Network in America and the Japanese studio Production IG, this international collaboration led first to a series of short cartoons about robotic arena combat, replaying many traditions of sports anime with the arrival of a team of rookies who must somehow fight their way to the top.
A second series, directed by Mitsuru Hongo, kept to a traditional half-hour running time, but seemed only loosely related to the original, moving the action to 2049, when the gladiatorial nature of the original IGPX has somehow transformed into something more like a car race, taking place in a purpose-built city, surrounded by a 60km track. IGPX thus incorporates many elements known to be a success in the merchandising-led world of children’s cartoons—the emphasis is on teamwork, but in a sport involving high-tech items, personal robots, and a gameplay that usually revolves around a combat lap, followed by a more traditional race to the finish.
Iizuka, Masanori
1965– . Animator and illustrator who debuted on High School Kimengumi, before becoming an animator and animation checker on many other works, including Mama Is a Fourth Grader and Cyberformula GPX.
Ikeda, Hiroshi
1934– . Born in Tokyo, Ikeda graduated in art from Nihon University in 1959, joining Toei Animation that same year and rising to director within 12 months. His first major work, however, did not appear for almost a decade, with the release of his feature-length adaptation of Shotaro Ishinomori’s Flying Ghost Ship. He also worked on a number of popular TV shows, including Little Witch Sally and Secret Akko-chan. He became head of Toei’s Animation Research Department (a training division) and later became a lecturer in animation at both the Tokyo Polytechnic University and Nihon University Graduate School of Art.
Ikenai Boy
1990. aka: The Boy Who Couldn’t. Video. dir: Hiroshi Uchida. scr: Satoichi Moriyasu. des: Toshio Takahashi. ani: Toshio Takahashi. mus: N/C. prd: JC Staff. 50 mins. x 2 eps.
College boy Shinichi Kamigawa moonlights as the master masseur Doctor K, popular with many young women all around Tokyo for his sexily soothing hands. This anime was based on Yoshihiro Suma’s erotic manga in Business Jump and features a live-action epilogue from real-life adult video star Ayami Kida, in a futile attempt to make up for the low quality of the rest of the production. N
Ikki Tousen *
2003. jpn: Bakunyu Hyper Battle Ikki Tosen. aka: Battle Vixens; Strength of a Thousand; Dragon Girls. TV series. dir: Takashi Watanabe. scr: Takao Yoshioka. des: Shinya Hasegawa. ani: Takashi Wada, Masayoshi Nakaya. mus: Hiroshi Motokura. prd: Geneon, AT-X, GENCO, JC Staff, Wani Books. 24 mins. x 13 eps.
Eighteen hundred years after his youthful demise in a Chinese civil war, the legendary warrior Shou Hao is reborn in Japan as Hakufu Sonsaku, a girl with large breasts and a ditzy attitude. She carries her predecessor’s soul sealed away in a magatama, a comma-shaped jewel of ancient significance, also seen in Blue Seed (as mitama) and Gamera. Nor is she the only one—many of her high school associates have also come into possession of sealed souls of Chinese warriors, resulting in a long and convoluted series of brawls and feuds between Tokyo high schools. The fighters are destined to relive the struggles and fates of their ancient counterparts unless they can find a way to break the bonds of history.
The events of Great Conquest: Romance of the Three Kingdoms are reenacted in modern-day Tokyo, as ancient heroes of Chinese legend are reincarnated as Japanese schoolgirls—but as with Takashi Miike’s live-action Tennen Shojo Mann (*DE), there is something ineffably silly about watching the pompous feuds and vendettas of old played out by scrapping schoolgirls. Where the warriors of old had heralds and imperial messengers, we have e-mail circulars and mobile phones. Unlike most of their viewers, they also seem aware of the histories and backgrounds associated with their names, in a postmodern touch that adds an old-fashioned sense of inevitable destiny. Some embrace the fate of their former incarnations, while others fight against it. They attend seven different high schools in the Kanto area, allowing for an endless round of plot, counterplot, alliance, betrayal, double-, triple-, and quadruple-cross, and of course a school uniform to suit every preference, because there are actually those who care whether panties flash from under a sailor suit or a tartan skirt—this is a big deal in an anime which cares about underpants as much as Agent Aika. There are guys who fight as well, because the Japanese state school system is coeducational and the target audience needs an identification point. Yuji Shiokaze’s manga, originally serialized in monthly Comic Gamu, was published in English as Battle Vixens, leading to the release of this show under that title in several territories.
Even in times past, the Three Kingdoms story contained subtexts of reincarnation and retribution. Although set at the close of the Han dynasty (3rd-century a.d.), elements of the tale suggested that the last Han emperor was actually the reincarnation of the first Han emperor, getting his just desserts for executing three loyal generals four hundred years earlier. Compare to Suikoden. LNV
Ikkiman
1986. jpn: Hagane Q Choji Ikkiman. aka: Steel Q Armored Child Ikkiman. TV series. dir: Nobutaka Nishizawa. scr: Haruya Yamazaki, Kenji Terada, Yoshiyuki Suga. des: Takashi Saijo. ani: Masahiko Imai, Michio Shindo. mus: Seiji Yokoyama. prd: Toei, NTV. 25 mins. x 32 eps.
A bizarre combination of sports anime and martial arts, as Ikki leaves behind the woman who broke his heart in Hokkaido, and comes to 21st-century Tokyo to seek his fortune at the violent baseball-fighting game Battle Ball. Gate-crashing a game between the Terran team, Blue Planets, and the off-world team, Satano Blackies, he steps up to bat and is soon the star player. Based on a manga by Yasuo Tanami and Kazuo Takahashi, serialized in Shonen Magazine, among others.
Ikkyu
1975. jpn: Ikkyu-san. TV series. dir: Kimio Yabuki, Tetsuo Imazawa, Hideo Furusawa, Shinya Miyazaki. scr: Masaki Tsuji, Satoshi Ishida, Tajio Tamura, Keisuke Fujikawa, Tomoko Konparu, Hiroshi Yamaura, Tomomi Tsutsui. des: Hiroshi Wagatsuma. ani: Yasu Ishiguro, Shinya Miyazaki, Takeshi Shirato. mus: Seiichiro Uno. prd: TV Asahi, Toei. 25 mins. x 296 eps. (TV), 15 mins. (m1), 15 mins. (m2), 25 mins. x 26 eps. (Ikkyu-san).
After the Ashikaga shogun unifies Japan, the emperor’s son Sengikumaru is sent to the Yasukuni Shrine by family politics—his maternal grandfather opposed the Ashikaga in the conflict. Shaving his head and changing his name to Ikkyu, he tries to live as a good monk, though taking any opportunity he can to outwit the greedy merchant Kikyoya, his daughter Yayoi, and even Yoshimitsu Ashikaga himself.
The series received a very limited partial broadcast, as Ikkyu the Little Monk, on U.S. local TV for the Japanese community, with English subtitles. The character had two short theatrical outings: Ikkyu and Princess Yancha (1978), in which Ikkyu must talk a tomboy into behaving in a more ladylike manner before her habit of calling herself by the boy’s name Tsuyumaru and attacking shogun Yoshimitsu Ashikaga with a wooden sword gets her into trouble. This was followed by Ikkyu: It’s Spring! (1981), in which further feudal fun ensued.
An unrelated 26-episode series, Ikkyu-san (1978), was a baseball drama on the rival Fuji TV directed by Toshifumi Takizawa, based on a Star of the Giants–influenced manga by Shinji Mizushima.
Ikuhara, Kunihiko
1964– . Born in Tokushima Prefecture, he joined Toei Animation after graduating in graphic design from Komatsu City College. Served as an assistant to Junichi Sato on shows such as Maple Town before achieving renown as the show runner for later seasons of Sailor Moon. Left Toei in 1996 to form Be-Papas, a small production team whose most famous creation is Utena. Spent two years in California at the American Film Institute, while continuing to work on non-anime output for Be-Papas.
I’ll/CKBC *
2002. jpn: I’ll Generation Basket. aka: I’ll /Crazy KOUZO Basketball Club. Video. dir: Itsuro Kawasaki. scr: Miyuki Takahashi. des: Kaname Sekiguchi. ani: Kaname Sekiguchi. mus: N/C. prd: Mamiko Namazue, Aniplex, SME Visual Works. 30 mins. x 2 eps.
Akane Tachibana and Hitonari Hiiragi are two former basketball rivals forced to cooperate when Hitonari is transferred to Akane’s school in order to play on its basketball team. However, Hitonari’s parents expect better things for their son and hope to move him to an even better team, threatening to turn them into rivals once more. Based on the 14-volume manga by Hiroyuki Asada, which ran for nine years, from the time when Slam Dunk and Hoop Days were new, until 2004, this is yet another of those short-lived anime releases designed to reawaken interest in a franchise as it nears the end of its days. As so often occurs with such ventures, the story suffers from being compressed into an hour, despite attractive design work.
I’m Gonna Be an Angel *
1999. jpn: Tenshi ni Naru Mon. aka: Let Me Be an Angel; Make Me an Angel. TV series. dir: Hiroshi Nishikiori. scr: Mamiko Ikeda, Masashi Sogo. des: Hiromi Kato. ani: Hiromi Kato. mus: Yoshikazu Suo. prd: Studio Pierrot, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 26 eps.
As is the way with so many anime children, Yusuke’s father goes away on business and leaves him at home alone (there is no sign of his mother). En route to school, he lands on top of a naked girl with a halo. The “accidental kiss” she receives makes him her husband in her eyes—for similar inadvertent betrothals see Urusei Yatsura and Photon. Yusuke runs a mile but is shocked to discover that his new “wife” Noelle is a new transfer student at his school. Unable to shake her off, he gains a new extended family of supernatural creatures, including a father modeled on Frankenstein, vampiric elder brother Gabriel, dark-elf sister Ruka, and invisible older sister Sara. The grandmother matriarch, even more opposed to the marriage than Yusuke himself, tries to oppose his presence, though since they have moved into and converted his own house into a supernatural dwelling, this is not so easy. Meanwhile, Noelle is at the center of another anime love polygon with Despair, who wants her for himself, Yusuke, still lusting after girl-next-door Natsume, and the enigmatic Michael, whose book of dreams writes the closure of each episode. A hyper-cute, hyper-silly TV series that crashes together innumerable clichés of unwelcome-guest and magical-girlfriend shows, along with the traditions of school dramas and a brighter, breezier rip-off of the Addams Family.
I’m Teppei
1977. TV series. dir: Tadao Nagahama, Shigetsugu Yoshida, Yoshifumi Kondo, Hiroshi Fukutomi, Tsutomu Shibayama. scr: Seiji Matsuoka, Shunichi Yukimuro, Soji Yoshikawa, Hirokazu Mizude. des: Tetsuya Chiba. ani: Daikichiro Kusunobe. mus: Michiaki Watanabe. prd: Shinei, Nippon Animation, Fuji TV. 25 mins. x 28 eps.
Fortune hunters Hiromi Uesugi and his son Teppei are arrested for damaging a field in the Shinshu mountains, though they claim they are only following the directions to buried treasure from an ancient map. Teppei blows up the police station to aid his father’s escape, and the case reaches the local newspaper, where it is read by estranged members of the Uesugi clan. The prodigal clan members return, and Teppei, who has grown up in the wild in the company of animals and his semicivilized father, has trouble adjusting to the genteel culture of the Rin Academy school where he is sent.
Based on a 1973 manga in Shonen Magazine by Tomorrow’s Joe–creator Tetsuya Chiba, I’m Teppei was soon taken off the air due to low ratings, despite featuring storyboards from future Whisper of the Heart–director Yoshifumi Kondo.
Imazawa, Tetsuo
1940– . Born in Oita Prefecture, he graduated from Nakazu High School and went to Tokyo to work in publishing as a graphic designer. Part-time work for animation companies soon helped pay the bills, and his name appears on the credits for Ikkyu and the new series of Star of the Giants (1977). He subsequently joined Studio Juno full-time, and his works as director include Godmars, Hermes, and Coo of the Far Seas.
Imma Yojo: Erotic Temptress *
1994. jpn: Inma Yojo. aka: Lust-Beast Fairies. Video. dir: Yukiyoshi Makino. scr: Tsukasa Tomii. des: Kazushi Iwakura. ani: Kazushi Iwakura. mus: Takeo Nakazawa. prd: Pink Pineapple, KSS. 45 mins. x 5 eps.
Witchery and bondage as Maya wanders a fantasy landscape inhabited by depraved rapists. She enters a town where the ruling tyrant dwells in a “tower of pleasures” and sends out young ruffians to procure women, whose juices he requires in the manufacture of a dangerous drug. Before long, Maya is captured and abused by a gang of men before leaving to experience several more episodes of assault, including one at the hands of robot women, the seduction of an unsuspecting knight, and even a retelling of one of the oldest Japanese Folk Tales, as two witches lure passers-by to their deaths on a haunted mountain pass. Not to be confused with the Cool Devices story Slave Warrior Maya, or indeed with Rose of Versailles, with which it shares some look-alike characters and costumes, though the costumes don’t stay on for long. LNV
Immoral Sisters *
2001. jpn: Ai Shimai. Video. dir: Roku Iwata, Hideo Ura. scr: Osamu Kudo, Momoi Sakura. des: Rin Shin. ani: Yuki Iwai. mus: Chikutaru Roman. prd: Elf, Office Take Off, Pink Pineapple. 30 mins. x 3 eps. (v1), 30 mins. x 2 eps. (v2), 30 mins. x 4 eps. (v3).
The president of the Nogawa Estate Agency sends his son Taketo to negotiate a compensation claim by Yukie Kitazawa. Yukie was injured in a traffic accident, and Nogawa hopes to settle out of court before Yukie’s husband returns home from a business posting abroad. However, Taketo’s method of negotiating involves drugging Yukie and then photographing himself molesting her unconscious form. Using the photographs as blackmail, he demands an impossibly high settlement from her, forcing her to become his sex slave by way of payment in lieu. His father then approaches Yukie’s daughters Rumi and Tomoko and has them for himself.
Before long, Taketo is living in sin with Yukie, and also abusing the two girls. When Yukie’s husband Kunihiko unexpectedly returns, there are mixed feelings in the household. Taketo and Yukie try to keep their affair secret, Tomoko wants everyone to be one big happy family, while Rumi tries to engineer her “real” father’s departure (although the story implies she may be a stepdaughter, once again pandering to the not-quite-incest subgenre of so much porn anime) so she can return to the only “norm” she knows. On discovering his family members’ secret, Kunihiko confesses that he has harbored a secret lust for his own daughter Tomoko for some time, and Tomoko duly offers herself to him to preserve order. These two serials, Ai Shimai 1: Coupling’s Fruit (3 parts), and Ai Shimai 2 (2 parts), were later reedited to make the compilation two-parter Ai Shimai: Coupling’s Fruit Juice (2004).
For the third series, released in 2004 as Ai Shimai Tsubomi, aka. Ai Shimai 3, aka Ai Shimai: Make Me Wet, aka Immoral Sisters 3: Blossoming, the title remains but the characters change. This time the “immoral sisters” are Kotono and Suzue Miyatsuji, students at a school where their mother is the principal. They both yearn for fellow student Shoichi, who will be expelled from the school if he fails his exams again. Shoichi, however, is more interested in the school nurse, Maiko. Maiko suggests that he cheat in the exams by stealing a disc containing the questions. But while he is trying to do so, he is caught by Kotono and duly rapes her in order to ensure her silence. When did it get to be so hard just to study? Based on the 2000 computer game by Elf. LNV
Immoral Wife
2005. aka: Immoral Wife: Woman’s Hidden Sexual Nature. Video. dir: Linda, Tsubasa Kazematsuri. scr: Jiro Muramatsu. des: Linda. ani: Hikaru Tojo. mus: N/C. prd: Sunny Side Up, SS Studio, T&B, Milky. 30 mins. x 2 eps.
Natsumi tires of her promiscuous life of multiple partners and sexual experiments and settles down into a quiet marriage. But it’s not long before she finds herself secretly yearning for the good old days. Based on an erotic manga by “Linda,” and released on Christmas Day 2005: ho ho ho. LNV
Immorality *
2004. jpn: In no Hoteishiki. aka: Equation of the Immoral. Video. dir: Kanzaburo Oda. scr: Sosoro Masaoka. des: Eri Kohagura. ani: Eri Kohagura. mus: N/C. prd: Milky. 30 mins. x 2 eps.
New school nurse Sayoko Saeki has an innocent face and a voluptuous body. She begins as an object of fantasy for the boys at the school, but is later revealed as a succubus who drains men dry. Based on an erotic thriller by Azuki Kurenai. The series was also released (along with the first two episodes of Akiba Girls) in North America as part of Hentaipalooza. LNV
Immorality Wars
1998. jpn: Inju Dai Kessen. aka: Lust-Beast Great Battle. Video. dir: Iwao Zumen, Tai Kikumoto. scr: Atsuhito Sugita. des: Shimendoji. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: KSS, Pink Pineapple. 47 mins.
A demonic rapist plagues Japan (for a change), repeatedly dividing itself and reforming in different places. In order to stop Japan becoming “a hell of mad sex,” the government initiates a sex sting operation, predictably encouraging attractive young agents to submit to the rapist for the benefit of world peace and the pornographic consumer. LNV
In a Distant Time
2004. jpn: Harukanaru Toki no Naka De: Hachiyo Sho. aka: HaruToki; In A Distant Time: Hachiyo Chapter. TV series. Video. dir: Aki Tsunaki, Nagisa Miyazaki. scr: Junko Okazaki. des: Akemi Hayashi, Kenichi Onuki, Kyoko Kotani. ani: Noriko Otake. mus: Masanori Sato. prd: Yumeta Company, Hakusensha, Haruka Production Ctee, KOEI, TV Tokyo. 24 mins. x 26 eps. (TV), 25 mins. x 3 eps. (v).
Akane Motomiya is sixteen, with red hair and a generous heart. She’s popular but has two particular friends, both boys—fourteen-year-old blond cutie Shimon Nagareyama, a junior-high student who looks up to her, and fellow redhead Tenma Morimura, aged seventeen but in her grade at school; compare to similar tensions in Escaflowne. She lives an ordinary life until, on the way to high school with her friends, she hears voices coming from nowhere and is suddenly dragged down an old well. She finds herself alone in a strange world that resembles the Japan she’s seen in history books. This is the land of Kyo, and she is recognized by its people as the Priestess of the Guardian Dragon, whose special powers can protect Kyo in its hour of need. Kyo is under attack from demons led by Akram, a rather charming devil despite the mask he always wears and his virulent hatred of the people of Kyo.
Before long, Akane has acquired a bodyguard of eight handsome men, the Hachiyo, each with his own talents, hair color, and backstory, and each totally devoted to the well-being of the Maiden of the Guardian Dragon—compare to The Hakkenden. Although Akane is worried about her friends, scared, and not at all sure how she can help, she begins to influence events just by being herself. Her bravery and compassion begin to change the hearts of those around her—even the demons, and especially Akram. Created by KOEI and based on a manga by Toko Mizuno from monthly Comic Lala magazine, the anime’s real roots are in a dating sim game for girls launched in 1999 and still selling. The makers claim it “may be” the first anime based on a girls’ dating sim, obviously hoping this element of originality will gloss over any perceived similarities with Fushigi Yugi, Inu Yasha, or the manga Red River. A two-part video spin-off (HTnNd: Ajisai Yumegatari) was also released in 2004. Tsunaki has also worked as an animation director on two Pokémon movies as a character designer, and has directed several of KOEI’s NeoRomance game series.
In Praise of Judo
1974. jpn: Judo Sanka. TV series. dir: Shigetsugu Yoshida, Masami Hata, Tetsuo Imazawa, Hiroshi Fukutomi, Hideo Takayashiki. scr: Haruya Yamazaki, Tsunehisa Ito, Akio Matsuzaki. des: Hiroshi Kaizuka. ani: Takao Kasai, Yoshiaki Kawajiri. mus: Yukio Takai. prd: Nippon TV, Tokyo Movie Shinsha, Madhouse. 25 mins. x 27 eps.
This was the last of the TMS sports-themed anime, ending a line that began with Star of the Giants. Tosshinta Tomoe grows up by the rough seas of Sotobo in Chiba Prefecture. He goes to high school where he decides to follow in the footsteps of his divorced mother, Teruko, a former judo champion. As with every other sports story, our hero is trained by a tough but kind coach who only wants the best for him, and he eventually faces up to an opponent who has sworn revenge on the previous generation—in this case, a male judoist defeated by Tomoe’s mother in her fighting days. The series was taken off the air due to low ratings before the more touching later episodes of Hiroshi Kaizuka’s manga could be adapted. Compare to Yawara.
In the Beginning *
1992. jpn: Tezuka Osamu no Kyuyaku Seisho Monogatari. aka: Osamu Tezuka’s Old Testament. TV series. dir: Osamu Dezaki. scr: Osamu Tezuka. des: Osamu Tezuka, Shinji Seya. ani: Masaki Yoshimura, Akio Sugino, Junji Kobayashi, Hideaki Shimada. mus: Katsuhisa Hattori. prd: NTW, RAI, Tezuka Pro. 25 mins. x 26 eps.
In 1984, the Italian RAI channel approached Astro Boy–creator Tezuka and asked him to make a series of Bible stories for this international coproduction that were closer to the originals than the apocryphal Superbook: Video Bible. Tezuka threw himself into adapting his earlier manga version of the Old Testament, even to the extent of working as a humble animator on the Noah’s Ark episode. The series was not completed until 1992, long after the death of its creator, and though it was soon screened in Italy, Germany, and the U.S., it did not receive a Japanese broadcast until 1997, when it was dumped on the WOWOW satellite channel. Coro, a sloe-eyed fox, acts as the viewpoint character for the entire series, witnessing the Fall of Man, the Flood, the rise of King David, and other major events. There was simply no time to allow for the many minor stories included in Superbook.
Incontinent Helena
2005. jpn: Daishikkin Helena. Video. dir: Daifuku Suginami. scr: Sekiro Kamatsuchi. des: Daifuku Suginami. ani: Daifuku Suginami. mus: Yoshi. prd: YOUC, Digital Works (Vanilla Series). 30 mins. x 2 eps.
In the 5th-century a.d., sisters Theodora and Helena of the Burgundian tribe see their homeland invaded by soldiers of the Merovingians. Fleeing the mass rape of the Burgundian women after the Merovingian victory, warrior-princess Theodora plans to commit suicide, but upon hearing that the demure Helena is still alive resolves to help her. Julianus, the Merovingian commander, is impressed by Theodora’s haughty bearing and alabaster beauty, but he is the sort of person (because this is that sort of anime) who wants to see beautiful women degraded and conquered.
However, his methods of achieving this are, at least for this genre of anime, remarkably original. He makes her the leader of his armies and sends her out to conquer other lands in the Merovingian name, but cruelly neglects to mention that all the while he is using her sister Helena as his sex toy. She discovers the truth upon her return, whereupon a series of abuses ensue. Considering the title, it’s a fair guess that enemas may be involved. Our rendering of the proper names in this Dark Age erotic anime are mere guesswork—they might be Merovingians, but they might equally be Melvins … historical accuracy is not really a deal-breaker in this sort of show. Part of the Vanilla Series. As we went to press, this video was announced as forthcoming in the U.S. under the title Elfen Laid, a punning reference to Elfen Lied. LNV
Infinite Ryvius
1999. jpn: Mugen no Ryvius. TV series. dir: Goro Taniguchi, Akihiko Nishiyama. scr: Yosuke Kuroda. des: Hisashi Hirai. ani: Yoichi Ueda, Asako Nishida. mus: Katsuhisa Hattori. prd: Sunrise, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 26 eps. (TV), ca. 6 mins. x 6 eps. (Internet).
An Evangelion clone set in a solar system 80 years after a solar flare has immersed the system in a massive plasma field that links all the planets like a nervous system. Troubled youth Koji Aibo (who looks just like Evangelion’s Shinji) is lured into a quest by the enigmatic Neya (a girl who looks like Evangelion’s Rei) to sail to the heart of the plasma field in the titular ship. The series was also an early pioneer in the spread of Internet downloads, when six Flash animation shorts—entitled Infinite Ryvius Illusion (jpn: Mugen no Ryvius Illusion, aka Ryvius Illusion)—parodying the series were put online for fans. Each was divided into four sub-episodes (six for the last episode) which were selectable from within the main episode, and which generally featured ongoing storylines. These were subsequently included as extras in the DVD releases.
Ingoku Byouto *
2002. jpn: Ingoku Byoto. aka: Obscene Prison Ward. Video. dir: Norihiko Nagahama. scr: Rokurota Makabe. des: MIE. ani: MIE. mus: Yoshi. prd: YOUC, Digital Works (Vanilla Series). 30 mins.
Junichi Shiozaki is a specialist in the digestive system, posted to one of the best hospitals in Japan. Those familiar with the “nursing” subgenre of Japanese animation will know exactly what this is going to mean—see Night Shift Nurses. After successfully saving the life of a prominent politician, Junichi “celebrates” by raping nurse Yayoi Narumi. Yayoi resists him at first but soon learns to enjoy being abused, promising to be his sex slave. Meanwhile, new arrival Serika is the daughter of the hospital owner, who developed a crush on Junichi when she was a patient and he was a young intern. Junichi, however, despises Serika for her privileged upbringing and sees to it that she is implicated in a series of fake accidents and incidents at the hospital, hoping thereby to ensure that he gets to be the next hospital director instead of her. In a tradition lifted from other hospital anime and TV dramas, Junichi is a brilliant surgeon who truly loves his work but appears to lack any feeling for the patients themselves, or indeed the many nurses he molests. Based on a computer game by Girls Software, and part of the Vanilla Series. LNV
Initial D
1998. TV series. dir: Shin Misawa. scr: Hiroshi Ashida, Nobuaki Kishima. des: Noboru Furuse. ani: Noboru Furuse. mus: Ryuichi Katsumata. prd: Fuji TV, Prime Direction, OB. 25 mins. x 26 eps. (TV1), 25 mins. x 13 eps. (TV2), 114 mins. (m), 25 mins. x 24 eps. (TV3), 40 mins. (v1), 27 mins. x 2 eps. (v2).
In a blighted, soulless town north of Tokyo in Gunma Prefecture, disaffected youths drag souped-up cars in illegal street races. Seventeen-year-old petrol pump attendant Itsuki dreams of saving up enough to buy his own set of wheels and join the Akina Speed Stars gang, fellow garage worker Iketani boasts of his prowess, and their manager occasionally regales them with tall tales about the fastest man on the mountain. This shadowy figure is actually their shy friend Takumi, who breaks the speed limit each dawn to keep the deliveries fresh for his father’s tofu shop, enjoying the beginnings of a romance with Natsuki, a local girl who has a secret—she has an older man as a lover, one who gives her expensive gifts in an instance of “subsidized dating.”
Replaying the semifantastic road mythologies of Bomber Bikers of Shonan and his own earlier Legend of Rolling Wheels, Shuichi Shigeno’s human interest manga in Young Magazine about boys and their toys was snapped up on the cusp of the revolution in digital animation. Featuring car magazine test-driver Keiichi Tsuchiya as a technical adviser, the anime version plays up an anal attention to detail with lectures on driving skill and interior shots of engine activity. Meanwhile the traditional cel animation of the non-racing scenes contrasts jarringly with the computer-animated racing sequences in the style of the PlayStation game Gran Turismo. The second season, unsurprisingly rebranded as Initial D: Second Stage, begins with Takumi’s car trashed by the rival Akagi Red Suns—a challenge if ever there was for a new duel over who owns the road. When the series gained a 24.5% TV rating, a movie, Third Stage (2001), was produced, focusing on the characters’ graduation from high school and opportunities to leave the dead-end town of their birth behind. A third season, the confusingly titled Fourth Stage (2004) features the boys going professional, forming a Project D in order to challenge rivals outside their home region.
Initial D was an immense success not just in Japan, where such ratings for anime are rare indeed, but across Asia. It was thus not much of a surprise that when the inevitable 2005 live-action remake followed, it was a Cantonese production, starring Taiwan popstar Jay Chou as Takumi, with Natsuki (Ann Suzuki) the only major cast member played by a Japanese performer. Despite the strange sight and sound of Chinese actors pretending to be Japanese—a subject of greater controversy in the same year’s Memoirs of a Geisha—the movie is a remarkably fair and faithful adaptation of the spirit of the original.
The video Battle Stage (2002) simply collects some of the best moments from the racing sequences in the TV series. The two-part Extra Stage (2005) was sold as a bonus with the final volume of the Initial D manga and features two female characters taking on the infamous Emperor team whose activities caused so much trouble for the boys in earlier volumes.
Inmu *
2001. jpn: Inmu: Ikenie no Utage. aka: Lustful Dream, Inmu: Feast of Victims; Banquet of Sacrifice. Video. dir: Ran Misumi. scr: N/C. des: N/C. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Pink Pineapple. 29 mins. x 2 eps. (v1), 31 mins. x 2 eps. (v2).
The “mysterious witch,” voiced in the American release by porn actress Asia Carrera, is a masked figure who is the living embodiment of the maxim that people should be careful what they wish for. In a vengeful, rapacious variant on the initiatress of Rei Rei or the Faustian owner of the Petshop of Horrors, she narrates a series of short pornographic vignettes, including a schoolgirl who thinks she is being stalked by a fellow train passenger, a snooty fashion designer publicly humiliated by the assistant she spurned, tentacle rape on the school swim team, and a girl obsessed with dolls. Each story is barely fifteen minutes long, hence the presence of four “stories” in only two “episodes,” although they are called “nights” here, doubtless intended to give a dreamlike Arabian Nights quality to the whole sordid mess. As with many other releases from NuTech, Carrera is joined by fellow stars of adult entertainment on the voice track, and lends her real-life image to the box art—compare to similar gimmicks tried in Japan with the likes of Adventure Kid.
A second two-parter, Inmu 2, features similar tales. In one, a teenage virgin discovers that her would-be boyfriend has been having sex with a prostitute who looks just like her. In another, a peeping tom finds his fantasies coming to life when he is hospitalized in the care of the nurse he has been stalking. A man becomes possessed by the sexy succubi that inhabit a cursed deck of playing cards. And finally, in what seems to be a compulsory not-quite-incest tale, a man struggles with his confused memories of an affair with his widowed stepmother. LNV
Inomata, Mutsumi
?– . An illustrator with many credits as an in-betweener and key animator on 1970s shows such as Urusei Yatsura, Inomata moved into character design on City Hunter. Her work adds a feminine touch to otherwise male-oriented shows such as Brain Powered.
Inoue, Toshiyuki
1961– . An animator and sketch artist on Only Yesterday, among others.
Instant History
1961. jpn: Otogi Manga Calendar. aka: Manga Fairy Tales. TV series. dir: Ryuichi Yokoyama, Shinichi Suzuki, Michihiro Matsuyama. scr: Ryuichi Yokoyama, Shinichi Suzuki, Michihiro Matsuyama. des: Ryuichi Yokoyama, Shinichi Suzuki, Michihiro Matsuyama. ani: Ryuichi Yokoyama, Shinichi Suzuki, Michihiro Matsuyama. mus: N/C. prd: Otogi Pro, TBS. 3 mins. x 312 eps.
Anime’s very first TV series. This black-and-white series of shorts explains various historical events and notable occasions, normally through a framing device of a character who is not aware “what happened on this day in history,” discovering firsthand for themselves. Explanations did not always take a
cartoon form, but sometimes included photographs and film footage, often taken from the research archives of the Mainichi Shinbun newspaper, where director Ryuichi Yokoyama’s Fuku-chan manga was running at the time. Note: though IH was the first TV series, it was still not the first anime broadcast on TV. That honor goes to Three Tales (1960, Mitsu no Hanashi), an experimental anthology broadcast on the NHK channel, comprising adaptations of famous stories—Oppel and the Elephant by Kenji Miyazawa (see Night Train to the Stars), Sleepy Town by Mia Ogawa, and the first anime ever truly broadcast on Japanese TV, The Third Blood, by Kosuke Hamada, directed by Keiko Kozonoe.
Interlude *
2004. Video. dir: Tatsuya Nagamine. scr: Akemi Omode. des: Eisaku Inoue, Hideo Horibe, Yokinori Hotani. ani: Eisaku Inoue. mus: Koichiro Kameyama. prd: Toei Animation, Happinet Pictures, Sky PerfecTV. 40 mins. x 3 eps.
A nameless protagonist wakes up in a world empty of people, though his solitude is occasionally interrupted by attacks from unexplained demonic creatures. He eventually meets Aya, a dark-haired girl waiting silently at one of the deserted railway stations, driven by an intense state of denial into living each day perfectly normally, as if the rest of the population of the world has not disappeared. In fact, he and Aya are both part of the Pandora Project, a secret plan that is supposed to allow the human race to survive the end of the world, although it currently has some major flaws, one of which is the existence of Aya herself. An intriguing update of Wind of Amnesia for the Animatrix generation, focusing on just one of the three heroines from the original game for the DreamCast and PS2.
Internal Medicine *
2003. jpn: Shikkaku Ishi. Video. dir: Kazuyuki Honda. scr: Kazuyuki Honda. des: Wataru Yamaguchi. ani: Kazuyuki Honda. mus: N/C. prd: Studio Jam, Image Works, Milky. 30 mins. x 2 eps.
Makoto is a man on a mission, a doctor-in-training who has sworn vengeance on the doctor whose negligence caused the death of his sister. All he knows is that the doctor in question has a scalpel scar on the back of his hand and has a peculiar handshake. He finds the right hospital and takes a job there in order to investigate further (since simply asking or checking his sister’s medical records would have made this a short story), uncovering another conspiracy even greater than he previously thought, involving sexual liaisons among the other staff members. In order to investigate the mystery, he sleeps his way to the top, in yet another hospital porn anime—compare to Night Shift Nurses. Based on a game created by MBS Truth. LNV
Interstella 5555 *
2003. aka: Interstella 5555: the 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. Movie. dir: Kazuhisa Takenouchi, Hirotoshi Nissen, Daisuke Nishio. scr: Thomas Bangalter, Cedric Hervert, Guy-Manuel de Homen-Christo. des: Masaki Sato. ani: Katsumi Tamegai, Keiichi Ichikawa. mus: Daft Punk. prd: Toei. 68 mins.
A band of four blue-skinned alien musicians is kidnapped by the Earl of Darkwood, a sinister figure who has leeched off musical talent since at least the time of Mozart—his previous captives include Jimi Hendrix. The band members are taken to Earth and put into disguises to enable them to perform as the “Crescendolls,” Darkwood’s latest signing. However, a fan from their homeworld has followed them to Earth, and manages to break the spell on the three male members of the band by shining a light into their eyes. The men escape and later rescue the bass player who remained behind, although their faithful fan dies during the process. Defeating Darkwood and retrieving the discs that contain their original memories, the band returns home.
Electronic pop group Daft Punk comprises writers Bangalter and de Homen-Christo, whose French-speaking childhoods exposed them to the work of Leiji Matsumoto, most obviously his Captain Harlock in its Albator incarnation. Hiring Matsumoto to supervise the animation of several songs in order to make video promos for their album Discovery (2001), the pair later returned with new songs and bridging footage in order to make this dialogue-free musical movie, which gets to recycle Matsumoto’s stock beautiful, enigmatic woman; tall, slender hero; and short, squat sidekick one more time, with stunning visuals, lush color, and an attitude charmingly goofy enough to give anime its first pure rock opera. It also sits happily within the tradition of Franco-Japanese co-productions ushered in by Ulysses 31 a generation earlier.
Inu Yasha *
2000. TV series. dir: Masashi Ikeda, Akira Nishimori. scr: Masashi Ikeda, Katsuyuki Sumizawa, Takashi Yamada, Akinori Endo. des: Eiji Suganuma. ani: Kazuhiro Soeta, Eiji Suganuma, Shinichi Sakuma. mus: Kaoru Wada. prd: Nippon TV, Sunrise, Yomiuri TV. 25 mins. x 167 eps. (TV1), 25 mins. x 26 eps. (TV2), 60 mins. (sp.), 100 mins. (m1), 99 mins. (m2), 98 mins. (m3), 86 mins. (m4).
Japanese schoolgirl Kagome is pulled into a well by a centipede monster and through a 500-year time tunnel to Japan’s civil-war era. She escapes from the well to discover Inu Yasha, a half-dog demon, pinned to a nearby tree by the priestess Kikyo. The local villagers believe Kagome to be the reincarnation of Kikyo, and she must reluctantly team up with her predecessor’s enemy to hunt down the many shards of the “Jewel of Four Souls,” which Inu Yasha originally came to steal.
In the unsure economic climate that began the 21st century, with the Pokémon tide ebbing and their Brave Saga on hiatus, Sunrise bought into the success of a long-running, best-selling creator, optioning this recent manga from Ranma 1⁄2’s Rumiko Takahashi. A buddy-story in the tradition of Ushio and Tora, with a time-traveling element that bears a close relationship to the creator’s earlier Fire Tripper. Movie editions followed, including IY: Love Across Time (Jidao o Koeru Omoi, 2001), IY: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass (Kagami no Naka no Mugenjo, 2002), IY: Swords of an Honorable Ruler (Tenka Hado no Ken, 2003), and IY: Fire on the Mystic Island (Guren no Horaijima, 2004). The TV special IY: The Love Song Before We Met is a prequel, detailing the reasons why Inu Yasha and Kikyo hate each other at the start of the series.
Invasion of the Boobie Snatchers *
2005. jpn: Bakunyu Shimai. aka: Wetnurse Sisters. Video. dir: Aim. scr: N/C. des: Benk, Michitaka Yamamoto. ani: Aim, Michitaka Yamamoto. mus: Yoshi. prd: YOUC, Digital Works (Vanilla Series). 30 mins. x 2 eps.
College student Shinji wakes up one morning to find himself sleeping alongside Yuria, a sexy alien catgirl who has come to learn all about Earth culture. He teaches her all about sex with him, which is a start, we suppose. Her sister Alissa arrives later on. The girls have large breasts. If nothing else, the authors greatly enjoyed the English release title—another entry in the Vanilla Series. LNV
Iria *
1994. jpn: Iria: Zeiram the Animation. Video. dir: Tetsuro Amino. scr: Tsunehisa Arakawa, Tetsuro Amino. des: Ryunosuke Otonashi, Masakazu Katsura. ani: Ryunosuke Otonashi. mus: Yoichiro Yoshikawa. prd: Bandai. 35 mins. x 6 eps.
Bounty hunter Iria and her associates are charged with rescuing hostages from a deep-space cargo vessel, only to discover that they are already dead. Her brother Gren dies defending her from Zeiram, an unstoppable bioweapon with a carnivorous noh mask built into his head. As the vengeful Iria chases Zeiram across a marvelously well-realized alien planet, she sees that she has been framed in a conspiracy and has accidentally obtained a pendant containing an incriminating data chip.
Featuring excellent music, wonderful designs inspired by Terry Gilliam films such as The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), and a rare anime character design job for Video Girl Ai–creator Masakazu Katsura, Iria is an excellent science-fantasy adventure with a truly alien feel, let down only by a mediocre English-language dub.
The series is a prequel to Keita Amemiya’s live-action movie Zeiram (1991), in which Iria, played by Yuko Moriyama instead of the anime’s Aya Hisakawa, pursues Zeiram to Earth. Set three years earlier, the anime is mercifully free of the mundane constraints of the live version (which primarily took place in deserted Japanese streets), leaping from vast space freighters to alien worlds and cities full of bizarre technologies. More characters are introduced, and the handful of rubber monsters in the original are replaced by an army of clones, causing a degree of carnage that would bankrupt a live-action studio. The franchise continued in its live-action format with Zeiram 2 (1994) and Zeiram 3 (1997), directed once more by Amemiya. He would also direct Moon Over Tao (1997), also starring Moriyama, which moved the general look and feel of Zeiram to an unconnected historical-fantasy setting.
Iron Leaguer
1993. jpn: Shippu Iron Leaguer. aka: Whirlwind Iron Leaguer. TV series. dir: Tetsuro Amino. scr: Fuyunori Gobu, Akihiko Inari, Noboru Sonekawa. des: Tsuneo Ninomiya, Kunio Okawara. ani: Hideyuki Motohashi. mus: Kaoru Wada. prd: Sunrise, Studio Nue, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 52 eps. (TV), 25 mins. x 5 eps. (v).
An inevitable combination of the sports-anime plotting of Captain Tsubasa with the giant-robot combat of Gundam, as a team of cartoonish armored super-soldiers plays a fusion of soccer and street basketball against cybernetically augmented rivals. With secret attacks, absentee parents, struggles against adversity, and the usual rash of off-the-peg formulae, credited as usual to house pseudonym “Hajime Yadate,” the Iron Leaguer series survived on video for another handful of episodes but never attained the popularity of its predecessor Cyberformula GPX, in whose sci-fi sports image it was clearly made.
Iron Man
1991. Video. dir: Koichi Ishiguro. scr: Keiji Michiyoshi. des: Hidetoshi Omori. ani: Hidetoshi Omori. mus: N/C. prd: JC Staff. 50 mins.
Nineteen-year-old university student Yuji decides to become a “host” at a city bar where lonely women will pay a cover charge for the pleasure of his company. He soon becomes a full-fledged male prostitute, claiming all the while that this is all an experiment in order to “better understand the hearts of women.” Based on a minor manga in Comic Morning by Climbing on a Cloud–creator Hiroshi Motomiya, this predated the similar Gigolo by two years. N
Iron Virgin Jun *
1992. jpn: Tetsu no Otome (Shojo) Jun. Video. dir: Fumio Maezono. scr: Fumio Maezono, Tsukasa Sunaga, Akihiko Takadera. des: Mitsuyoshi Munesaki. ani: Mitsuyoshi Munesaki. mus: Hiroki Ishikawa. prd: Triangle Staff, Animaruya. 46 mins.
A sword-and-sorcery romp from Devilman-creator Go Nagai about spunky teenager Jun refusing to accept an arranged marriage and fighting to save her honor. Her mother makes this difficult for her by sending a gang to bring her back and teach her that sex isn’t something to be afraid of. After watching the way this porno handles it, you might disagree. NV
Ironfist Chinmi
1988. jpn: Tekken Chinmi. aka: Ironfist. TV series, video. dir: Toshitaro Oba, Kazuhiro Mori. scr: Junji Takegami, Shikichi Ohashi. des: Kenichi Onuki. ani: Kenichi Onuki, Hideyuki Motohashi, Osamu Tsuruyama. mus: Kei Wakakusa. prd: Tohoku, TV Asahi. 25 mins. x 12 eps. (TV), 32 mins. (v).
Chinmi is a kung-fu protégé brought to the Dailin temple by the Old Master. There, he learns at the feet of the teacher Ryukai, befriends fellow student Jintan, and plays in the forest with his pet monkey, Goku (see Journey to the West). He runs errands for the temple, learning all the while about the nature of strength, both physical and mental. This short-lived adaptation of Takeshi Maekawa’s 1983 Shonen Magazine manga, faithfully depicted the first 12 volumes (all that were available at the time, though the manga itself is still ongoing today) but introduced new characters, kung-fu aspirant Laochu and female foil Lychee, to even out Maekawa’s original boy-heavy cast. Chinmi was back the same year with the straight-to-video Ironfist Chinmi’s Kung-fu Picture Book (Tekken Chinmi Kenpo Daizukan), a clip-show of his eight best bouts, which, with an emphasis on fighting, outlasted the series that spawned it by a mile.
Irresponsible Captain Tylor*
1992. jpn: Musukenin Kancho Tylor. TV series, video. dir: Koichi Mashimo. scr: Hiroyuki Kawasaki, Kenichi Kanemaki, Asami Watanabe. des: Tomoyuki Hirata. ani: Tomoyuki Hirata. mus: Kenji Kawai. prd: Big West, Tatsunoko Pro, TV Setouchi. 25 mins. x 26 eps. (TV), 40 mins. x 2 eps. (v), 35 mins. x 6 eps. (v), 30 mins. x 2 eps. (v2).
Justy Ueki Tylor is the ultimate slacker, a lazy good-for-nothing who joins the galactic military because he thinks it is the passport to an easy life. Put in charge of a battered hulk called the Soyokaze (Slight Wind), the former captain of which committed suicide due to depression, Tylor finds himself commanding a gang of thugs led by two stuffy officers (named after martial icons Mifune and Fuji) who would like nothing better than to throw him out of the airlock. Tylor, however, continually falls on his feet, accidentally thwarting an enemy double cross by giving them a parcel bomb meant for him, haphazardly steering his way through a battle so that alien warships shoot each other, and even unknowingly volunteering for a suicide mission only to escape from danger by leading his would-be destroyers right into the middle of the Terran fleet. In the tradition of Tylor’s contemporary Tenchi Muyo!, our loser hero is also surrounded by a bevy of beauties, including girl-next-door Lieutenant Yuriko Star, adoring alien ruler Queen Azalyn Goza (who likes Tylor, even though her ministers want her to invade his planet), pretty and vacant twins Eimi and Yumi, and alien spy Harumi, who is planted on the Soyokaze to assassinate Tylor but never quite gets around to it.
The character is a cartoon version of Hitoshi Taira, the lazy protagonist of the 1962 live-action movie Japan’s Irresponsible Age who was played by comedian Hitoshi Ueki. This popular satire on Japan’s salaryman culture featured a feckless individual who always managed to come out on top, advancing up promotional ladders when accidents befall his superiors, or lucking into important business information simply by malingering and goofing off. The series and its theatrical spin-offs were revived in 1990, suspiciously close to the time when Hummingbirds-creator Hitoshi Yoshioka would have begun work on this anime version.
The series returned in several video outings starting with the two-parter Tylor: An Exceptional Episode (1994), followed in 1995 by a six-part series that concentrated in turn on some of the supporting cast—Azalyn, for example, given an episode of her own, followed by one in which the star is Tylor’s mad-dog pilot, KB Andressen. The series was rounded off by the two-part video series Tylor: From Earth to Eternity (1996), in which the lazy captain once again saves Earth from an alien menace by hoping the problem will go away. However, he is not permitted a tidy happy end—the series finishes with the Ralgon Empire on the brink of civil war, Earth and the Ralgon Empire in a confused state of relations, and the nature of a third-party enemy revealed.
I”s
2002. jpn: From I”s—Mo Hitotsu no Natsu no Monogatari. aka: From I”s: Another Summer Story. Video. dir: Yosei Morino. scr: Shigenori Kageya. des: Rin Shin. ani: Studio Pierrot. mus: N/C. prd: Studio Pierrot, DigiCube. 29 mins. x 2 eps. (v1); 30 mins. x 6 eps. (v2).
Ichitaka Seto is a high school sophomore, not very confident or forthcoming and madly in love with Iori Ashizuki, the class babe, who is working hard toward a career as an actress. He turns into a total dork around her but begins to build a friendship that may go further with his dream girl, until his other childhood friend Itsuki Akiba, a perky tomboy with an open, free and easy attitude, comes back from America. Her family moved over to the States years ago, but when she wants to graduate high school in her old hometown, it’s only natural that she should room with old friends the Setos.
Masazaku Katsura’s manga I”s is a rerun of his Video Girl Ai without the magic video store, a gentle romance whose three main characters are childhood friends whose names all begin with I. The girls are no mere eye candy, but bright, ambitious young women. Iori is serious enough about her career to question whether she wants a romantic relationship with anyone for a while, and Itsuki wants to be a sculptor and is working hard toward her dream. Teen romance is beautifully rendered both visually and psychogically in all Katsura’s love stories, and he understands but rarely overplays the importance of the jiggles, giggles, and wiggles of “fan service.” A sequel, I”s Pure (2005), was directed by Mamoru Kanbe. N
Isabelle of Paris
1979. jpn: Paris no Isabelle. TV series. dir: Keiji Hayakawa. scr: Takeshi Shudo. des: Nobuyuki Kitajima. ani: Yoshiyuki Sugawara, Tadayuki Hayashi. mus: Tsutomu Matsushita. prd: DAX, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 13 eps.
Romance, cross-dressing, and intrigue in 1870s France, which could conveniently imply a relationship (of sorts) to Rose of Versailles. Fifteen-year-old Isabelle Laustin is the daughter of a wealthy landlord, Leon, and his wife, Marie. She has spent a happy childhood with her friend Jean and sister Genevieve, and she has a suitor in the person of Captain Victor of the French army. However, her life changes when Napoleon III’s army is beaten by the Prussians, and Paris is besieged. When the city is sold to the enemy by the feckless Louis Adolphe Thiers, it falls to Isabelle to save France by disguising herself as a boy and heading for London on a secret mission. A short-lived tale of French whimsy drawing on Les Misérables and Three Musketeers, but a solo scripting project for future Pokémon-writer Takeshi Shudo that made little use of the rich historical potential, looked just like every other adventure anime, and sank without a trace. Compare to Star of the Seine.
Isaku *
1997. jpn: Isaku. aka: Written Clues, Posthumous Works. Video. dir: Katsumasa Kanezawa. scr: Sakura Momoi. des: Hiroya Iijima. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Pink Pineapple, KSS. 30 mins.
x 3 eps.
An everyday school is found to have dark secrets—a hidden torture chamber, secret passages, and an insane janitor who has trapped several schoolgirls in the deserted hallways. Five girls, their attractive female teacher, and some token boys star in a schlocky slasher-thriller, with plenty of time out for sexual assault, as befits an anime adapted from an unpleasant computer game. The aim of the original was reputedly to escort the female cast safely off the premises, though many of the players preferred to watch them succumb to the janitor’s lust. A similar mindset seems to have dominated the filmmakers. NV
Ishiguro, Noboru
1938– . Born in Tokyo, Ishiguro graduated from the film department of the Nihon University, before becoming an animator on Astro Boy. He joined TV Doga in 1964, but went freelance in 1965, his first independent job being directorial work on Marine Boy. Work on Wansa-kun and Little Goblin led to his best known work on Star Blazers, a franchise that has dominated his career ever since. He was also the director of the Macross movie Do You Remember Love?, Megazone 23, and many other anime of the 1980s.
Ishinomori, Shotaro
1938–1998. Pseudonym for Shotaro Onodera; credited before 1986 as Shotaro Ishimori. Born in Miyagi Prefecture, Ishinomori made his first manga sale while still in high school. Like CLAMP and Rumiko Takahashi, his influence on the anime world is huge, but largely through being the original creator of many important manga.
As the creator of Cyborg 009 and 8th Man, he established many of the traditions of later Japanese espionage and superheroes, whereas in the live-action world, his involvement with Masked Rider (*DE) and the original Kikaider, not to mention the long running team show franchises that led to Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers (*DE), have made his work a vital component in understanding the last fifty years of Japanese popular entertainment.
Itano, Ichiro
1959– . After an early career designing machinery for shows such as Megazone 23 and Macross, Itano moved into action direction, gaining fame on such explosive works as Angel Cop and Violence Jack. His reputation continued in the 21st century with Gantz, the anime considered “too tough for TV.”
Ito, Ikuko
?– . A freelance animator whose character design work has made her name a regular appearance on the rosters of popular TV anime, including Sailor Moon and Maison Ikkoku. Specializing as a designer of pretty girls, Ito has also worked as a lead animator.
Ito, Kazunori
1954– . Born in Yamagata Prefecture, Ito sold his first script to the Urusei Yatsura TV series. As a member of the Headgear collective, he began a long-term collaboration with Mamoru Oshii, leading to their association with the Patlabor series, for which Ito wrote many of the best episodes—Ito’s wife Akemi Takada was a character designer on the same show. Ito is one of the best writers working in anime; his arguable masterpiece being the Ghost in the Shell movie, for which he artfully translated Masamune Shirow’s complex manga to the screen. He has subsequently moved into live-action films, scripting a Gamera movie and also Mamoru Oshii’s Avalon, which, the director ominously commented in interviews, has been their last collaboration. Oshii’s subsequent work has been demonstrably poorer for the absence of Ito’s contribution at the scripting stage.
Ito, Tsunehisa
1941– . Born in Kochi Prefecture, Ito sold his first animation script while still studying law and politics in college. His subsequent work has included episodes of Gundam, Nobody’s Boy, and Friten-kun.
Iuchi, Shuji
1950– . Born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Iuchi graduated from Design College of Tokyo before finding work as an animator on Microid S and Devilman. His directorial debut was an episode of the TV series Galaxy Express 999. Iuchi also has a number of script credits, billed as a writer and director on episodes of Mama Is a Fourth Grader and Yamato Takeru.
Izubuchi, Yutaka
1950– . Born in Tokyo, Izubuchi is a popular and prolific designer of robots and machinery in many landmark anime. His debut work was on Starbirds, where he was a protégé of director Tadao Nagahama, but his big break came with his involvement in the Headgear collective, which led to Patlabor. He is also fortunate enough to be a member of another, nameless, clique—attending the same high school as Shoji Kawamori and fellow designer Haruhiko Mikimoto. He has demonstrated that his work is not limited to robots alone, both with the organic and, literally, fantastic character designs in Record of Lodoss War and with his role as supervising director on RahXephon.
Izumo
1991. Video. dir: Eiichi Yamamoto, Masaya Mizutani. scr: Yoshihiko Tsuzuki. des: Masaya Mizutani. ani: N/C. mus: Reijiro Komutsu. prd: Kove, Studio Kumosuzu. 45 mins. x 2 eps.
Izumo, a prince of Nakatsu, hates old-fashioned custom and befriends Sanae, a girl from the rival kingdom of Yamatai. Meanwhile, neighboring countries Asuka and Yamato are plotting to steal the Amenomukumo Sword, a sacred treasure of Nakatsu. The warrior Yamato Takeru kidnaps Sanae, and Izumo takes up the sword to regain her, but he must first defeat Orochi, a serpent with eight heads and eight tails. This adventure anime combines the Japanese myth of Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon with a prehistorical meeting of cultures that would be revisited in Princess Mononoke. Based on Yoshihiko Tsuzuki’s manga in Comic Nora.
Izumo (b)
2003. jpn: Izumo. Video. dir: Takefumi Goda. scr: Yasuyuki Muto. des: Yoshi Ten. ani: Tao Min. mus: Pyonmo. prd: Studio E-go, Museum Pictures, Milky. 30 mins. x 6 eps. (v), 25 mins. x ?? eps. (TV).
Teenager Hikaru is plagued by dreams of a naked priestess praying by a spring who addresses him as her Savior. He also dreams of a secret room at his school and eventually cannot resist the temptation to seek it out, discovering a gateway to what at first appears to be another world, but may in fact be ancient Japan during the time of legends. Undertaking a quest to return to their own world by releasing four mythical beasts from captivity, Hikaru and his companion Ayaka soon discover that their fairy-tale world is underpinned by traumas in their own world—Ayaka has been suppressing memories of childhood sexual abuse; an intriguing decision to drag some of the subtexts of fairy tales into the open in the style of Urotsukidoji. A TV series without the nudity, Izumo: Flash of a Bold Blade (Takeki Tsurugi no Senki, 2005), features a new cast of Japanese schoolchildren, transported to the world of Izumo by an earthquake at their school, in the style of the earlier Long Love Letter (*DE). We have added a (b) to the title in order to distinguish this franchise from the earlier Izumo (1991), which has its own entry. LNV