Ronin Warriors

Ronin Warriors is the name of the English version of the anime Yoroiden Samurai Troopers.  The anime aired in Japan in the 1980's but didn't come to American until the 1990's.

The show featured five teens who worked together to stop the evil Talpa and his Dark Warlords.  I always thought of this show as sort of a male counterpart to Sailor Moon, what with five guys fighting evil and all.

 

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

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Interstella 5555

A few years back, Daft Punk made a series of animated videos for songs off their album Discovery.  Interstella 5555 is the feature-length movie made from those videos.  The movie contains no dialogue and uses visuals to tell the story of an alien music group that is brainwashed and whisked away to Earth to become the next big thing.  The only person who can save them is a space hero who is also the group's biggest fan.

There isn't a whole lot of artwork from this movie out there, so most of the pics are screencaps I made.  The movie is available on DVD, although your best bet is getting it from an online store.  I was never able to find it at an actual retail store.

Also, I've included the video for "Harder Better Faster Stronger" at the end of the post.

 

  

  

  

 
  

  

  

 

  

  

 

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SuperBat

What would happen if Superman's powers were transferred to Batman?  That's the intriguing premise behind the SuperBat storyline currently running in Superman/Batman.  The arc, which features pencils by Rags Morales, is set to conclude with issue #56.  This post features scans from issues #53-55.

 

  

  

 

Fruits Basket

Fruits Basket is a very popular manga and anime series created by Natsuki Takaya.  In the series, a teenage girl named Tohru stays with members of the Sohma family (lifelong rivals Kyo and Yuki and their older cousin Shigure) when she has no other place to go.  She inadvertently finds out the family's secret curse which is that certain members of the family turn into animals when hugged by a member of the opposite sex.  Instead of getting her memory erased, Tohru is allowed to keep the secret and soon affects the lives of the family.

The anime version of Fruits Basket is one of my all-time favorites and the original manga is very good.  Although you'd think the story would be a wacky comedy (and it indeed does have plenty of laughs), it can be dark and dramatic at times.  The author really explores the negatives of the curse (imagine a mother never being able to truly hold or hug her son) to good effect.

Artwork from both the manga and the anime are featured in today's post.  The manga is available in the U.S. from Tokyopop while the anime is available from Funimation.  Both are highly recommended.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

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