Anime of the Year 1993-I Winter - Musekinin Kanchou Tylor

In the end could only point out Musekinin Kanchou Tylor as a minor masterpiece.

1. Musekinin Kanchou Tylor The Irresponsible Captain Tylor 無責任艦長タイラー [Tatsunoko Production] (Finished 26/26) Tags: Comedy, Sci-Fi Adult Cast, Military, Parody, Space Justy Ueki Tylor is an average 20-year-old man: lazy, greedy, and a passionate womanizer. He plans to land an easy job with the United Planets Space Force that pays decently and is also far away from the rigorous combat raging throughout the galaxy. However, Tylor's dreams of living a simple life are brought to a sudden halt when he stumbles into a dangerous hostage situation. Through one strange mishap after another, Tylor miraculously manages to save the hostages and is awarded command of the decrepit space-cruiser Soyokaze! Now Tylor finds himself in charge of sending mad mercenaries, proud pilots, skeptical colleagues, and harsh commanders through the infinite expanse of the universe, all the while avoiding the looming threat of the Holy Raalgon Empire. What misadventures await the irresponsible Captain Tylor? I watched Irresponsible Captain Tylor before, but not sure if 1993 or 1995 version. What struck me back in early space genius tactics Space Battleship Yamato and Legend of Galactic Heroes was that they did not really boast of good tactics compared to modern examples and often relied on luck or just sucked up damage. Tylor brings that concept to the ultimate as it's a comedy that relies on pure luck with rare exceptions. Show has great funny characters and good pace with solid humor. I've praised enough to get into masterpiece range, time to focus on negatives to derive final score. It's not intellectual, so can't surpass 8. The setup with story and characters gets finalized by the 7th episode, and then there is a series of space SOL episodes. In the second half of the series tempo receives a blow and concentration starts to fade at times. Since the story was never serious, approaching the ending brings more and more nonsense, and that's just unsatisfying. Minor masterpiece score fits just right here.   Overall Rating: 7/10

2. Wakakusa Monogatari: Nan to Jo-sensei 若草物語ナンとジョー先生 [Nippon Animation] (Finished 4/40) Tags: Historical, School Drama, Slice of Life Nan Harding is the new student at Mr. and Mrs. Bhaer's school. Everyone thinks that she is a pain in the head, but not Mrs. Jo. Together with the other kids, they all embark on their personal adventures and misfortunes while learning in school. Finally Wakakusa Monogatari loses real connection with novel and lives its own life with a new protagonist as if from Ghibli works and one of old protagonists being just one of the teachers. Usual world masterpiece theater fans can rage all they want, but it's the best world masterpiece theater series at least for the sheer amount of comedy in it. Sadly, comedy takes only a part of the time, and mostly it's just SOL with small adventures and learning important lessons, blah-blah-blah. Something adults can hardly involve into.   Overall Rating: 6/10

3. Miracle☆Girls ミラクル☆ガールズ  [Japan Taps] (Finished 3/51) Tags: Shoujo Drama Mikage and Tomomi Matsunaga are Miracle Girls: they have a telepathic link with each other and can teleport when they link their little fingers. Tomomi is a sports star and has a boyfriend called Noda. Mikage is the smartest student in the school and is in love with her sempai. He moved to London to study but they still kept in touch, that is until a selfish princess called Marie decides that he should come with her back to Diammas. Back in Japan the twins are having various problems of their own. But they soon realise that there is a link between Marie, an ancient legend, and a girl they know called Emma. Telepathy... teleportation... jumping for 20 meters... I'm so prejudiced against espers that it starts as a  downer already. Shoujo immature romance focus does not add points as well. It's terribly chaotic and I can't call it even decent.    Overall Rating: 5/10

4. Yuusha Tokkyuu Might Gaine 勇者特急マイトガイン [Sunrise] (Finished 3/47) Tags: Mecha Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi Nouvelle Tokio City locates on the place where it used to be Tokyo Bay. At the first glance, the prosperous city seems to enjoy its freedom and peace, but the city is suffering from the crimes. Senpuuji Maito is a perfect 15-year-old boy, bright, handsome, smart, and all-around sportsman. Furthermore, he is the leader of Senpuuji Trading group, and a multimillionaire. He spends his private fortune to found "Brave Express Squad"? which consists of several robots. They are the robots that have various special abilities. Above all, the leader, Gaine, has a super artificial intelligence and has own personality. They can transform into trains. In case of incidents, they will appear anywhere in the world using the highly developed railway system. Another horrible Sunrise mecha. I welcome the fact that it's humor-focused so that there is a single reason that someone might watch it longer. A collection of beaten stamps besides that.   Overall Rating: 5/10

5. Aa! Megami-sama! ああっ女神さまっ  [AIC] (Finished 5/5) Tags: Seinen Comedy, Romance, Supernatural When college student Keiichi Morisato dials the wrong number while ordering for some food at his dormitory, he accidentally gets connected to the Goddess Hotline and a beautiful goddess named Belldandy appears out of a mirror in front of him. After getting kicked out of the dorm, Keiichi and Belldandy move to an old shrine and soon afterwards, Belldandy's sisters Urd and Skuld move in. Tenchi was the first harem, although it did not feel mature with normal protagonist and heroines that looked a bit childish. Megami-sama is an attempt to bring in harem with mature , yet fantasy-imbued females and slightly mischievous protagonist, as well as focus on actual romance rather than repelling space invaders. It's just six episodes, so as long as the whole cast gathers there's already anxiety about future parting and finale arc to start. So there's hardly anything to evaluate as the core itself between beginning and ending is missing.   Overall Rating: 6/10

6. Dragon Half ドラゴンハーフ [Production I.G] (Finished 2/2) Tags: Parody Comedy, Fantasy Mink is no ordinary teenage girl, being half-human and half-dragon. Her father had fallen in love with a red dragon he intended to kill, and instead of slaying the dragon, he married her. Their union gave birth to Mink, who inherited horns, a tail, retractable wings, and incredible strength—characteristics which signify her dragon half nature. Mink spends her days accompanied by her friend Pia, a dwarf girl with overprotective parents, and her best friend Lufa, an elf with great healing powers but impressively bad magic. The three find themselves mooning over the dreamy and charming dragonslayer, Dick Saucer. But in a sudden, absurd turn of events, Mink gets closer than ever to the object of her fantasies, only to realize that her love may never be reciprocated because of her dragon heritage. Thus, the trio sets out on a quest to find a potion that will make Mink fully human. They may unwittingly make enemies, but they are sure to have one heck of a good time. A comedy about cute half-dragon female and a group that sends dragon hunters after her... but she tries to get main dragon-hunter autograph all the time. It's fun enough, but too short to matter.   Overall Rating: 6/10

7. Moldiver モルダイバー [AIC] (Finished 6/6) Tags: Mecha Action, Romance, Sci-Fi Hiroshi Ozora invents the Mol Unit, a device that makes its user invincible. His plans of becoming a super hero are short lived however when his sister, Mirai, accidently modifies the suit configuration. Now she is forced to save Tokyo by herself from the evil Machinegal and his gang of all-female androids. What's there to like? Girl fighting mecha? Story? Action? Humor? Absolutely everything is average here, plus a fat doze of fanservice is mixed in for better digestion. It looks like Moldiver tried to play at the field of Gunbuster and humiliated itself miserably.   Overall Rating: 5/10

8. Kishin Heidan Kishin Corps 機神兵団 [AIC] (Finished 7/7) Tags: Historical, Mecha Adventure, Sci-Fi October 1941, as the second World War threatens to destroy the civilized world, an unforeseen complication suddenly occurs. An alien invasion! Despite the sudden appearance of these extraterrestrial aggressors, the Axis and Allies continue their destructive conflict. Only the Kishin Corps and their giant Geo-Armor Robots (a.k.a.: Kishin), developed from a captured alien robot soldier, stand between the Earth and total annihilation! A teenager, named Taishi, suddenly finds himself at the center of a struggle over a mysterious black attaché case entrusted to him by his father, Professor Tokamura. The case contains the controlling mechanism for one of the giant Geo-Armor Robots, and the Japanese Kanto Army, the alien invaders, and the Kishin Corps all want to recover the device! Between the spies, the armies, the aliens, and the Giant Robots, Taishi is in for an epic adventure—if he can survive it! The plot just leaves me speechless, because it's hard to imagine a person who reads this synopsis and says yeah, I'd like to watch it. I don't like mecha or action, so there's nothing to like here at all. Don't watch this stupidity. It may be contagious. .   Overall Rating: 4/10

9. Kouryuu Densetsu Villgust 甲竜伝説ヴィルガスト [animate Film] (Finished 2/2) Tags: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance Villgust is a peaceful world that exists parallel to ours. However, now an evil deity has been revived and has sent evil creatures to destroy many countries, which left darkness and terror to rule the world. The peoples' prayers and cries has reached out to the goddess Windina and in order to free the world from darkness she chose eight brave warriors to defeat the evil deity. Although blessed, these warriors are unaware at the path chosen for them, thus the two groups of Kui, Chris, Fanna, and Youta must meet up with Murobo, Remi, Ryuquir, and Bostov before they can follow the path chosen for them and defeat the evil deity. Adventurer party is always great. Adventurer parties fighting each others make my blood boil. But compared to Lodoss this one is much shorter, comedy focused and even with chibi characters. Decent is all it can get.   Overall Rating: 6/10

10. Unkai no Meikyuu Zeguy 雲界の迷宮ZEGUY [KSS] (Finished 2/2) Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy Mysterious warriors appear to blast Miki into another dimension! She flees her captors only to find herself trapped in a world of monsters and madmen who plot the downfall of Earth. The only power that can possible save her (and the world) is that of the mysterious Mask of Zeguy. Miki must embark on a life-or-death quest for this talisman, with the villains who kidnapped in hot pursuit! Warp in time is usually a bad idea. Gathering famous people from different era is usually a bad idea. Cramping it all into two episodes with very little explanation is definitely a bad idea.   Overall Rating: 5/10

11. Al Caral no Isan Legacy of Aru Kararu アル・カラルの遺産 [animate Film] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Seinen Space Sci-Fi In the 26th century, humans discover a humanoid race living on the distant world GO/7498/2, a dark-skinned, golden-eyed people who seem to eke out a primitive, carefree existence. However, a scout team from Earth discovers that there is more to them than meets the eye--they live in symbiosis with vicious reptilian parasites, and the Terran scientists have upset the delicate natural balance. Another work that aims to appeal to space exploration fans. Very uninspiring development and anticlimactic ending.   Overall Rating: 5/10

12. Magma Taishi Ambassador Magma マグマ大使 [Tezuka Productions] (Finished 13/13) Tags: Shounen Space, Super Power Action, Sci-Fi The alien invader Goa plots to conquer the Earth. He first warns the Murakami family (father Atsushi, mother Tomoko, and son Mamoru) of their invasion, and demonstrates his powers by transporting them to a prehistoric jungle and destroying a Giant Dinosaur before their very eyes. But they will not agree to surrender to Goa, so hope comes in the form of Magma, an armored, golden giant with long hair and antennae. He and his human-sized wife Mol, both created by the wizard Earth are sent to defend our world against Goa. They befriend Atsushi and Mamoru, the latter has Magma emotionally touched, as he wanted to have a child with his wife Mol, so Earth creates a duplicate of Mamoru, named Gam Earth gives Mamoru a whistle, with which he can call Gam Mol and Magma in times of crisis. So when Goa unleashes his various daikaiju, chances are, Magma, Mol, and Gam will fly to the rescue. Tezuka Productions is reviving a very ancient franchise, and it's worrying since those old franchises are usually too simple for 1990s already. It's not something I'd usually watch, but I'm interested in studio evolution. It did pretty well with Oniisama e... , but this time story is much more comples with multiple protagonists - Mamoru, his clone Namu and superpower wielding Magma. They rarely are in one place, so there are constant shifts between different stages, and that irritates a lot, especially if we're getting distracted for nothing like Magma fighting just one more giant octopus or something. There's not enough verbal explanation, and there are often unexplained actions happening and new actors encountered. Another pain is Mamoru himself, as he always shouts hysterically. Setting gets finalized only by the end of 6th episodes, and, needless to say, few would wait up to this point. The giant and dinosaur happen only in 11th episodes with 13 episodes total. It's all very confusing. As I see it, Tezuka Productions took this manga up for staging because it was moderately interesting, old and because it had some environmentalism with Mother Earth as one of the characters. What I like in this work is visuals, animation techniques occasionally used, one continuous story where each episode is totally different, character and monster designs. What I don't like is pretty much everything else - story, huge number of characters, confusion, hysterical protagonist, magma himself as invulnerable pseudo-mecha, many remnants of the ancient 60s works.   Overall Rating: 5/10

13. Anata ga Furikaeru Toki あなたが振り返るとき  [Grouper Productions] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Shoujo School Romance Three shorts based on stories by Hanai Aiko, who also directed this OVA. Not translated. Omnibus with 30 minutes length means it's 10 minutes per school romance story. But it's not the worst thing here. Basically, it's colored still images and camera just moves left-right, corner-corner, zoom in-out. There are rare exceptions, but it can't be called anime, just a shame.   Overall Rating: 4/10

14. Offside オフサイド  [-] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Action, Drama, Sports Main character Goro Kumagai leads a small soccer high school club to success. Not translated. Length is just 50 mins, so there is only some match, sudden drama of love interest girl, then credits for the first half, and second half begins with all drama forgotten, another match ensues. What nonsense.   Overall Rating: 4/10

15. Ganbare Goemon: Jigen Jou no Akumu がんばれゴエモン 次元城の悪夢 [AIC] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Comedy It was originally released in 1991 as part of a campaign to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Ganbare Goemon series, being distributed as a lottery prize for purchasers of the Super Famicom game Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyūshutsu Emaki (known outside of Japan as The Legend of the Mystical Ninja). It was later distributed as a user gift tie-in for purchasers of Ganbare Goemon 3: Shishijūrokubē no Karakuri Manji Gatame. The OVA features segments parodying three other popular Konami franchises: Gradius, Akumajō Dracula and TwinBee. Since it's just a fan story for NES game with multiple crossovers, it's 25 minutes of pure chaos. To get something from the story should wait for the series released in 1997.   Overall Rating: 4/10

16. Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama ラーマーヤナ ラーマ王子伝説 [Nippon Ramayana Film Co.] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Adventure  Rama, the eldest prince of the Kingdom of Ayodhya, is beloved by all and the natural successor to his father's throne. However, when one of his father's wives conspires to get her son on the throne instead, Rama ends up being banished into the woods for 14 years. Accompanied by his wife, Sita, and his brother, Lakshman—Rama tries to make the most of life in exile despite his challenges. The trio's life in the forest is interrupted, however, when Demon King Ravan sets his sights on Sita. Using a crafty plan, he manages to distract Rama and steal Sita away to his castle. Heartbroken and distraught, Rama searches every corner of the world for his wife, unaware of the lengths he will have to go to rescue her. No offence intended, but story is a nonsense bore from a dated source. It was made with only Indian watchers in mind. The only way anyone would want to watch it is being Indian/needing to write report on Ramayana/being forced to watch it on TV.   Overall Rating: 5/10

17. Sangokushi: Dai Ni Bu - Choukou Moyu! Great Conquest: Romance of Three Kingdoms 三国志 第二部 長江燃ゆ! [Toei Animation] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Historical Action An anime based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel. Continuation of Sangokushi: Dai Ichi Bu - Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake that I absolutely hated as humiliation to original movies and series. This sequel again beats around the bush and kinda ends with naval battle. Why? Why ruin absolutely perfect franchise with absolutely horrible remake?.   Overall Rating: 3/10

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