Over on CHIZUMATIC, Steven DenBeste said recently:

It's too bad that the Kimura character is in Azumanga Daioh. I'd really like to love the series, but he ruins it for me.

In that Azumanga Daioh is probably my favorite anime of all time and I've been trying to get SDB to give it a chance, I'd like to make an offer to him. To whit:

I, Wonderduck, will go through the entire 26-episode series, note exactly when Mr. Kimura appears, and send him the list of times. That way SDB, armed with the list, can avoid Kimura (almost) entirely. There are very few episodes (only two leap to mind, and one of them is on DVD 1) where Kimura plays a 'major' role in the story, and the rest of the episodes have only short appearances by him.

I've succeeded in turning Kimura-haters into fans of the show in the past (see THIS review of the show for an example), and I believe SDB would become a huge fan if he'd give it a chance.

So what say you, Steven?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 185 words, total size 1 kb.

You may have noticed that the Pond was down for a bit last night. This is because He Who Must Be Obeyed was busily moving all of MuNuvia onto a pair of new servers... servers named Kei and Yuri.

Longtime anime fans (and some better-educated n00bs) probably have a smile on their face now. Kei and Yuri are better known as The Dirty Pair, and are LEGENDARY in anime history. As Steven DenBeste puts it, they're THE canonical "Girls With Guns," or rocketlaunchers, or any other implement of destruction that you can think of.

There's a TV series (unreleased in the States; c'mon ADV, you've got the rights... stop sittin' on them!), three movies, and a 10-episode OVA (Original Video Animation, which means that it was made specifically for home release, not broadcast. Unlike "straight to video" here in the States, OVAs usually have bigger budgets and better animation than broadcast shows). There were also multiple books, a 'sequel' series (Dirty Pair Flash, which is a re-imaging of the original characters. Not awful, but not as good as the Classic pair), and a series of comic books here in the states (Adam Warren's Dirty Pair, which are well worth the read).

These days, the Classic Dirty Pair look somewhat dated (hand-drawn and animated, no computer help at all), but still hold up well if you're looking for humorous characters and lots of explosions... they're fun, nothing more or less.

Why "Dirty Pair"? Well, Kei & Yuri are a pair of elite troubleshooters for the WWWA (a galactic government), code named "Lovely Angels." However, where-ever they go, massive destruction follows in their wake... space stations, biospheres, cities, entire planets... but, as they always point out, "It's not our fault!" Indeed, the 3WA Head Computer has always cleared them of wrongdoing (it really ISN'T their fault... um...), and they keep on doing their jobs.

As you might guess, the media has paid attention, and tagged them with the moniker "The Dirty Pair," which name they HATE. The only time they do serious harm is when someone calls them "The Dirty Pair." There's no surer way to piss them off, which you do at your own peril.

I've been informed that The Pond is currently running on Pixy Misa's "Yuri." Which is cool, but I've got a thing for Kei, m'self.

Quack quack!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:11 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 393 words, total size 3 kb.

1 If you're after a blog hosted on Kei, you could take a look here.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at November 13, 2005 12:20 AM (QriEg)

2 I have all the Adam Warren comics, and a couple of "film comics" produced from cels from the TV series, back when anime wasn't a blip on the Western market. The only thing I don't have is the re-released versions of the movies.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at November 13, 2005 12:41 AM (QriEg)

3 I've didn't know they made "cel comics" of the Angels! I've got a couple of those for the wonderful Tintin, which isn't anime, but IS animation.

I'll be picking up the re-released versions perhaps later this week... the copies I have are on very, very old VHS.

These days, the Warren Angels seem to be what leaps to mind (for me) when someone mentions the DP... simply because he's done new stories recently (note: 'recently' means 'in this century'). Considering that his 'Biohazards' series was my initial exposure to the DP, I suppose this shouldn't be surprising.

Posted by: Wonderduck at November 13, 2005 04:08 AM (M7kiy)

Hide Comments | Add Comment