Brain Powered = Brain Dead

Okay, now I can do "Brain Powered."

It's very difficult for me to write this, because I'm still angry about this show three days after finishing it.  I still don't really have my thoughts together on this... but I'll try anyway.



Brain Powered 

TV Series, 1998
Director: Yoshiyuki Tomino
26 Episodes (approx. 25 minutes each)


The Story:

Orphan is a giant alien spaceship resting at the bottom of the ocean.  Most of Earth's scientists have determined that it subsists on "organic" energy, i.e. the life force of the living things on this planet.  When Orphan rises from the ocean to return to the stars, it will supposedly kill all life on the planet as it sucks all of the energy out of the planet. The Reclaimers are a group of people who believe in reviving Orphan and sending it into space, thus causing the Apocalypse.  When this happens, a select few of humanity (guess who) along with other biological specimens will go along with Orphan in it's galactic odyssey.  Still with me?  Good.  Meanwhile mysterious "plates" (thin metallic saucers) have been appearing all over the world and have been giving birth to bio-mechanical humanoid giant robots called Antibodies.  Apparently whoever finds a plate first influences what kind of Antibody will be born in this "revival."  The Reclaimers' antibody of choice is the Grand Cher.  The type used by the UN, which actively opposes the Reclaimers and their agenda of universal genocide, is apparently the Brain Powered.  Got all that?  Yuu is a young Grand Cher pilot who happens to be the son of the scientists in charge of running the Reclaimers.  One night while out plate huntin' he runs across a plate reviving in front of a young orphan girl named Hime.  Hime takes to the newly-born Brain Powered like a fish to water and becomes its pilot.  A year later, Yuu decides that worldwide eugenics is a bad thing and decides to leave Orphan.  He steals a Brain Powered and makes it to the Novis Noah, a UN warship dedicated to stopping the threat of the Reclaimers.  And five minutes after meeting Hime again kisses her.

Whew.


The Review For Those Who Haven't Seen It (Count Yourself Lucky):

This show sucks.  The plot synopsis I just gave covers the FIRST TWO EPISODES.  And all of the explanations that I gave regarding the basic setup and terminology are not all given in these two episodes - in fact some aren't really given at all.  Which doesn't bug me that much really because I don't need everything laid out on a plate for me as I do actually have a small modicum of intelligence.  It's just that this show is so clunky and horrible in how it goes about telling it's story that I could scream.  It's all so half-baked.  New terms and concepts are introduced without any explanation or even clues as to what they are.  For example, about halfway into the show a character in their giant robot is caught in the "World Vital Net" and blown to Siberia.  What is the "World Vital Net?"  It's never explained.  I deduced while watching that it is some form of transportation grid covering the world, but exactly what it was was beyond me.  Was is made by Orphan?  Was it man-made (this does take place in the future after all)?  Does it teleport people or just blow them somewhere with a wind current?  GIVE ME SOME IDEA, SHOW!

The art and animation for this show are substandard and ten years out of date.  Looking at this you wouldn't believe that it was made in 1998 - compare this with Cowboy Bebop which came out the same year.  What's worse is that the outdated cel animation is mixed with primitive computer graphics.  The character designs are pretty good, but the mecha designs are pretty bad.  The giant robots of the protagonists and antagonists are so similar to each other that it took some time for me to tell them apart.  This made things confusing, and this is bad - in a giant robot show you should be able to distinguish one type of mecha from another.  A Gundam, for example, and a Zaku look nothing alike.

What's even worse is that this show has hideous dialogue.  I have known for a while that dialogue was never a strong point in a Yoshiyuki Tomino show.  There's usually too much exposition and characters sometimes do not talk the way that real people do, in addition to the occasional moments that I call Tomino What Moments - where a character will say a line of dialogue that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and makes me go, "what?"  And this is in shows where there are actually people other than the director writing.  For Brain Powered Tomino both directed AND wrote the script, and this is a perfect illustration of what happens when he is allowed free reign on the dialogue in one of his shows.  Luckily he backed off on the writing duties for his next two shows.  Overman King Gainer is actually a watchable show (I don't know about Ɐ Gundam yet, but it's just been licenced for a US release.  I can't wait!).

All of this really, truly sucks because Brain Powered had great potential.  It has some good themes buried underneath all the garbage - like the theme of parents opposing their offspring and the concept of the male vs the female.  It has good character designs, great music (more on that later) and a good idea behind it all.  Tomino has always had great ideas in all of his shows as well as great settings - the man is truly a world-builder.  From the Earth Sphere of the Universal Century to the fantasy realm of Byston Well, Tomino has made different places and times that you can truly wrap yourself up in.  And the same could have been true for Brain Powered.  Which makes watching this shit even more painful.  I mean, Garzey's Wing was bad, but it was so bad that it was fun to watch in an MST3K kind of way - especially if you were watching the English dub, which is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.  Brain Powered is just bad.  Personally, I hope that I never have to sit through it again for the rest of my life.

So is there even one glimmer of hope, one salvageable jewel amongst the sewage that is Brain Powered?  Yes, and it is the music.  Never have I seen a show that is so unworthy of its score.  Yoko Kanno's music is truly wonderful (as many people will tell you).  The opening and ending songs are very good (and the opening infamously features the entire female cast nude).  My advice is to buy the soundtrack. Do not watch the show.


Analysis For Those Who Have (And You Share My Pity):

Something Yoshiyuki Tomino usually excels at is great characters: likable but flawed people who the audience can identify with and root for.  The problem in this show is (once again) that Tomino takes potential and chucks it down the toilet.  Take Yuu.  He's nominally the main character.  I say nominally because I don't think the director could quite figure out who he wanted his main character to be - Yuu or Hime.  I guess for the purpose of this review we can consider them both the main characters - they main couple if you will.  Anyway, Yuu is a really whiny, angsty teenager.  I know, shock upon shock.  A Tomino show with a hormonal emo-fest teen as a protagonist, it can't be!  But the director really tops himself this time.  Remember Camille Bidan from Zeta Gundam?  He's been the epittome of the whiny, angsty teen hero in Tomino's shows for years.  Well, he's now dethroned.  Because at least his whining was somewhat justified - both of his parents are killed and he's sucked into a war against a brutal totalitarian organization (if I just spoiled Zeta Gundam for you than I am truly sorry, but don't worry, all that I just described occurs within the first five episodes so I haven't spoiled too much).  Yuu does admittedly have problems - his parents used him as a guinea pig in their experiments and his sister is a total psycho bitch - but his whining I think is disproportionate to the amount of suffering he's endured.

On a more amusing note I noticed that Yuu's main rival Jonathan was basically a nastier version of Todd from Aura Battler Dunbine, right down to the same hair/eye color.  Because when you need an Evil American only a blue-eyed blond will do.  Speaking of evil Americans, the way the United States is portrayed in this show pissed me off.  Not because they side with the bad guys - I'm not that patriotastic - but because they do it in an illogical way and with no real explanation whatsoever (there's a shock).  As I was watching the first part of this show I wondered "If Orphan is such a supposed threat to the world, why doesn't the US just nuke it when it surfaces?"  Jonathan even brings this up at one point, and I felt happy that maybe some common sense had come to the show.  That feeling was dashed though when America decides to annex Orphan as the 53rd state and take the side of the Reclaimers.  No, I think we would just nuke it.  Oh, and the US Navy is willing to nuke a shipload of refugee children and make war on the United Nations.  How does the United States in this time work, anyway?  Geybridge is able to basically get the USA to do whatever he wants.  Wouldn't annexing an alien spaceship require an Act of Congress?  Does the President rule everything?  Is America a dictatorship?  A theocracy?  You have to tell us these things, Tomino!  Ow.  My head hurts.

Another thing about this show is that it is predictable.  When Baron Maximilian appeared in the latter half of the show it only took about two episodes for me to figure out who it was.  Who could this mysterious masked figure mysteriously helping Jonathan be?  Hmm, let's see, Captain Anoah went crazy and disapearred while chasing a plate earlier in the show.  Hmm... Baron Maximilian shows up after this happens... let's see... Captain Anoah is Jonathan's mother and has a guilt complex about her son joining the enemy, Baron Maximilian seems to be fixated on helping Jonathan... hmm....  I also wasn't surprised when I found out who the Governor of Orphan was.

One last thing that pissed me off about this show, then I'm done: the ending made no sense.  Look, I've seen The Prisoner.  That show had an ending that made no sense (literally, anyway) but it was a brilliant show and the end worked as a metaphor for personal freedom and whatnought.  I've seen Neon Genesis Evangelion and that show had a whacked-out ending (which again makes sense only as a metaphor considering that Eva was basically Hideaki Anno's self-therapy session).  Brain Powered  just has a sloppy ending, an ending that makes you yell, "what the hell just happened?!" and not in a good way.  It just ends.  Nothing is explained.  Did Orphan take organic energy or nourish it, i.e. the plants?  It didn't kill everything on the planet when it went into space, did it do that on purpose because Hime talked to it or was it not going to do that in the first place?  Everyone on Orphan is sent back down to Earth and the spaceship just flies away.  What triggered this?  Was is Yuu and Hime?  Was it Jonathan finally (maybe) returning his mother's love?  Hime said that what Orphan wanted was to not be alone, so why send everyone back to Earth?  Why not keep a few people on board to keep it company?  So, what?  Orphan didn't really need long-term companionship, it just wanted a one-night stand with Earth?  Argh!

The DVD:

Since I don't recommend watching Brain Powered at all, I'm not going to talk about the DVDs that much.  The show is out-of-print (no big loss) but you can find it for pretty cheap if you really want it, though I can not imagine why.  The Anime Legends complete set compiles the previous volumes into one box.  There are extra features mainly consisting of interviews with Kanno and Tomino (who says that he's pleased with how things turned out - I hope he's lying) and credit-less opening and ending sequences, so you can see the naked chicks in all of their glory.  You know what?  Just go to Youtube so you can see the opening sequence instead if you absolutely need to see the naked chicks.  Do not waste your money on this.



Screenshots:

Because I really don't want to waste valuable image space with pictures from this show I'm only going to show two.

"Behold, His mighty hand!"

But is it more collectible than "Cheeses of the World?"

First Post

About a week ago I ran into a copy of the complete series of "Brain Powered" at the used bookstore.  I had watched the first volume of the previous DVD release a few years prior, and actually wasn’t too thrilled with it.  I picked up this set though as I was a) intrigued by the premise and thought that the show showed some potential despite the mediocrity of the first volume and b) a longtime fan of director Yoshiyuki Tomino’s other works so I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he could improve the rest of the show.  Well, I took it home and watched it over the next couple of days and found out that a) the show didn’t get better it actually got worse and b) I wasted my trade credit (luckily I didn’t waste any actual cash on this piece of crap).  Well, I took it back to the store and traded it for a newly arrived copy of the original OVA series of "Oh My Goddess".  I definitely traded up.  OMG was a refreshing river that washed away the memory of the fetid filth that was "Brain Powered".
I want to take some time to vent on all that was frustrating and wrong with a show with great potential and botched execution, but I don’t want to make my first review a negative one, so let’s review "Oh My Goddess".



Oh My Goddess 

OVA, 1993 
Director: Hiroaki Gōda
5 Episodes (approx. 2.5 hours)


The Story:

Keiichi Morisato is a lonely college student who is taking calls for his overbearing upperclassmen in his dorm one afternoon when he gets hungry and tries to call for take-out.  Instead he reaches the goddess Belldandy, who appears and offers to grant him any one wish he desires.  Being single and male, he wishes “to have a girl like you stay with me always.”  His wish is granted, unfortunately his dorm is male-only and both he and Belldandy are kicked out.  They find refuge in and make a home out of an old abandoned temple (this is probably the biggest fantasy aspect of this series: rent free housing).  Later on Belldandy’s sisters Urd and Skuld come to Earth and decide to freeload, essentially killing any chance of Keiichi and Belldandy making any little demigods.


Review For People Who Haven't Seen It:

This is an anime classic.  It’s sweet without being too saccharine (a flaw with the TV series and later manga), it’s funny without being too over-the-top (a common flaw with comedy anime) and while it does have some good moments is not too fanservicey (which is a major flaw with a LOT of anime).  The art and animation are good for the time.  The music is also pretty good (the opening and ending songs were fluffy but catchy).  Basically this anime is just one big happy pill, even though it does get dramatic in the last two episodes.  The only thing I didn’t like was that the animators made Keiichi look like he’s twelve years old (he’s supposed to be 19 or 20 – I mean, I know that he’s supposed to be shrimpy but come on).  Minor quibble, really.  This show is highly recommended!


Analysis for People Who Have (aka Spoilers):

I had actually seen OMG prior to getting this DVD set.  I liked it, and it helped to get me into the original manga (by Kosuke Fujishima) and the other anime based on the manga.  Watching it for a second time helped me appreciate it more.  Some fans complain that this OVA is too short but I think the length is perfect since it’s a self-contained story, different from the manga.  I realized this while re-watching it.  Little scenes and bits of dialogue suddenly take on a different meaning when viewing it again.  I like the way that everything tied together into a cohesive story, something that no other version of this franchise (save the movie, which is also great) has.
I used to be ambivalent about the revelation that Kei and Bell met as children but now I know that it’s essential to the drama of the whole thing.  Their meeting as children is what makes their relationship as adults possible, however it also causes pain and threatens to separate them.  Belldandy’s careless promise to Keiichi as a child results in her having to erase his memories of her by sealing them in a tree (which apparently had a leak since Keiichi did display hints of remembering from time to time – maybe that blue ball of light Belldandy made in the very beginning was a spell to unlock a tiny fraction of his memories so that he would be influenced to pick the wish he did?  Hmm.  It would help explain her line about her “sin”).  Even though they are able to meet later (which if you think about might have been set up by Belldandy - she's a rather manipulative woman, isn't she?  Maybe she's not all cookies and cream....) this tree and its memories contained within very nearly force them apart.  I like this conundrum.  Even though everything ends up being alright in the end (come on, did you expect anything other than a happy ending?) it’s refreshing to see a more complicated view of love and its highs and lows in this version of OMG as opposed to the later incarnations of the anime, which are pretty simplistic and rather saccharine.  This whole scenario also helps explain how and why Belldandy falls in love with Keiichi (The reasons that he falls for her aren’t an issue --- they’re very obvious to see and it’s easier for men to fall in love with women than for woman to fall in love with men).  In the original manga it actually comes off as rather convenient that she falls in love with him; we never see the reasoning as to why she does.  Oh sure, he’s a nice guy and all but just spending time with someone (especially in a contractual situation like the one portrayed) isn’t going to make you fall in love with someone.  The later TV series tried to explain it by showing that Keiichi’s overwhelming kindness towards others and selflessness are what leads to him being eligible for receiving a wish in the first place, as well as attracting Belldandy’s love.  But the manga never showed him in this light, just an average student who had no luck with women.  The OVA at least offers the idea that Belldandy has loved him since meeting him as a kid, and that fact that he was even able to see her was special (“You must be a friend of Nature”).  Interestingly enough Fujishima has said that this is how he originally wanted to end the manga but decided against it having now used it in the anime.  It makes me wonder how he *is* going to end the manga, if it ends at all.
Another thing I liked about this OVA is that Keiichi is actually willing to *gasp* touch Belldandy and while a little nervous around her (which is understandable, I mean she is a freaking goddess) does not seem to have a complete phobia about physical contact or intimacy like he does in the later TV show.


The DVD:

Animeigo’s now out-of-print DVD collector’s set replaces the previous releases which reportedly had video transfer problems.  I can’t say as I never saw them.  Seeing OMG on DVD after seeing it on VHS though was an almost divine experience.  Wow, is the video so much better.  The Collector’s Edition also packs a bunch of extras which are fun to read and watch.  I only have a couple of gripes.  One is that the playback is locked out, meaning that you can’t skip to just any part of the DVD on your computer DVD player.  You must essentially play your DVD like a VHS and fast-forward and rewind if you want to go to a certain part of the show in-between chapter stops.  This made grabbing screenshots for this review time consuming to say the least.  The other complaint I have is that Animeigo put this on 3 DVDs when they could have easily pared it down to two.  I think they did this so they could charge more money.  They did the same thing with the old VHS, putting out one episode per tape.  Skinflints.
About the dub: I’ve never been a fan of Animeigo’s English dubs and Oh My Goddess is no different.  It’s not hideously bad, but it’s not good either.  It is definitely my least favorite OMG English dub (I actually kind of like the TV series dub, and the movie dub is alright).  I stuck to the Japanese.



Screenshots:

Our three goddesses: Belldandy, Urd and Skuld.

See what I mean?  College student or middle-school student?

Keiichi's little sister Megumi.  I love the sleazy look on her face.

I wish I had a little sister who was trying to get me laid.

 There's an object in this shot which makes it utterly friggin' hilarious.

Hint: it's not the old top-loading VHS deck.

Long live the new flesh!

That last proposal was just a little too kinky for Belldandy.

Welcome to the Pharonic Fantasy Theatre

Hello, reader, if indeed anyone else is even reading this.

I like to watch DVDs.  A lot of DVDs.  As in, nearly every night I'm watching something or other.  Movies, TV shows, live-action, anime, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, drama, William Shatner, you name it.  I'm really a complete vid-head.  After a while I figured, hey why don't I do something productive with something so passive and do a movie blog on the internet along with all of the 5 million other movie blogs?  That way I can make something out of my viewing experience by helping other people with theirs.  Thus this Pharonic Fantasy Theatre will exist to give my opinions on moving pictures I have just watched and help you the reader decide if you want to see them.  If this goes unread by anyone else I will write anyway seeing as I like to write and doing this keeps me in practice.  I will try not to include anything extraneous or off-topic in this blog; I don't think anyone is interested in my personal life.

Reviews will be of whatever I have just watched plus whatever I have just watched it on.  Which will usually mean DVD since I don't watch TV that much (ironically enough).

Oh yes.  Why is this called "Pharonic Fantasy Theatre?"  Well, this blog is neither Egyptian nor exclusively about fantasy... i just liked the way it sounded.  So there.  Pft!