Roku

For this latest post, there are some questions I will ponder, what comes next. Questions like will I continue this after class, and how can a I make money off of it.
What started off as a parody ended up as digressions of selected anime. No, I did not take any potshots at Star Blazers or Gigantor. Why? Simple. One was kid's cartoon that I watched when I was a kid, so it is near sacred like say, "Barney" and "Pokemon" will be to many of you, if you don't want to admit it yet. For the other? The idea of pulling a WW2 war ship off the bottom of the ocean and turning it into a space ship speaks for itself. I get the cultural (military) significance of an iconic warship ship to come to the rescue. An American equivalent would be the USS Missouri or the USS Enterprise (the aircraft carrier). Would German animators do the same with the Bismark? I don't think so. Given that it was a WW2 ship and German guilt still runs very deep, but even then the Bismark (and the two American ships) lacks the symbolism that the Yamato has.

Go

Time for yet again for another post. I figure time to go a little old school. What kind of animes did old geezers like me get into? We did, but may have not realized their origin. The first anime series I watched as a kid was Gigantor, known in Japan as Tetsujin Nijūhachi-gō, (鉄人28号 literally "Iron Man #28"). The TV series first ran in Japan in 1963 and came to the United States in 1964. It was based on a 1956 manga with the same name written by Mitsuteru Yokoyama (横山 光輝 Yokoyama Mitsuteru).
Moving up to the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the United States, it was called Star Blazers. This one was heavily edited from its original Japanese version because of some cultural sensitivities. It's Japanese and original name was Space Battleship Yamato (宇宙戦艦ヤマト Uchū Senkan Yamato). In this space opera, Earth is being invaded by an extra terrestrial military. To save Earth, the World War Two Battleship was Yamato raised from the bottom of the ocean and retrofitted to be a space ship.
With their 18 inch main guns, the Yamato and her sister ship Musashi were the largest and heaviest armed battleships ever built. Both were sunk by American aircraft during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Shi (Yon)

There are a couple of reasons why I wanted to wanted to do a seperate post about George Miyagusuku (宮城ジョージ). It is not that he is one of the major characters. He is a supporting character that meets a tragic demise early in the television series. He remains alive and well in the manga. But one detail about him and Saya's relationship I have to wonder about. Every Oban, when his female family members cleaned and dusted the tomb, how did he explain the girl in the cocoon?

I knew a couple of guys that were kind of like George. The difference that they were retired military expatriots living there with wife and the kids. But, back to George. The story does not say, at least not that I picked up, if George is bi racial (aka amerasian) or if he is an expat himself. Either case, it is most likely that either he or his dad were Americans who took the wife's family name at marriage. This is kind of rare, but does happen. If the artist's sketches are any indication, my guess that George is the former.

San

OK, so I took a couple of pot shots at Pokemon. Now for another anime, this time Blood Plus. Check out the link to give an idea of what it is about. Since it shares the same universe as we do, sort of, it deserves a few shots too. Not a magazine full, just a few rounds.

My biggest question about the series is how does the young Saya will little or no exposure anything Japanese and even less of Okinawan culture, become fluent and literate enough in Japanese to blend in a high school? How would her guardian explain to school authorities why there are no transcripts or evidence of her previous education?

According to the Wikipedia Biography, Saya was born in 1833 on a French estate known as "the Zoo". Typical of her species, she hibernates for about 30 years between active states that last only two to three years. So far so good. In the story, most of her awake times were mostly in Europe other than being in Vietnam sometime during the mid to late 1960s. From Vietnam, she is taken to Okinawa under the care of George Miyagusuku (宮城ジョージ), one of the American soldiers. Back on Okinawa, George places her cocooned hibernating body in the Miyagusuku family kameko-baka (turtleback tomb) until she awakes sometime before the story begins about thirty years later.

More about George in the next post.

Ni

Quick note, the contest is the name of the blog. But yes, Ichi is the word for "one".

OK, so I guess I'm kind of stuck on the same track. While watching the Pokemon series and the movies with my kids back in the day, there were a couple things I wished that the writers would include in at least a couple of episodes.

I always hoped to see protesters from Stop Humans Explotating Pokemon Now picketing the gyms whenever Ash and crew show up for a match. Another thing that would be cool, is to see the look on Brocks face when Nurse Joy's boyfriend smacks him (or her girlfriend, either way) or not only accepts his proposal, but drags him in the medical supply room. Or, Brock hits on Officer Jenny one last time and she cuffs him while saying, "I always wanted to play vice cop." So tell me, what sort of gag would you like to have seen?

I am on the star train and I hope to find the answer.

Ichi

Contest: what does blog name translate to and in what language? The prize? an email with the word "gold star" if completely right. Bronze and silver for partial answers.

I know most of you grew Pokemon years ago an think that is old no one is into it anymore. Think Star Trek, but that is a latter post.

Watching show with my own kids back in the day, I could not help but wonder things like: Why a technically advanced society such as that would allow or even could permit 10 year-old kids wandering around adult supervision or protection or education? Where are the Truant Officers? Where is the Pokemon PETA? Pokemon unions for service Pokemon since they are cheap labor? Is there a screen play of a parody in there? Yeah, count on it.