TheRetroCritic

Growing up in France, I was exposed so several delicious things: croissants, the word "merde", American B-movies and Japanese anime. Every anime series was, of course, dubbed and entire new opening title sequences were designed to the sound of unique French tunes which usually had nothing to do with the original Japanese songs. Usually this was thanks to a TV show called Le Club Dorothée . Some are corny, some are hilarious, some are brilliant, some are just bad, some are combinations. Here are my personal favourites: 10 JULIETTE JE T'AIME (MAISON IKKOKU) Let's start with a guilty pleasure, shall we? Juliette Je T'Aime 's opening theme was nothing epic or particularly exciting but it was catchy and you'll find it hard to meet a French person who doesn't remember, at the very least, the chorus. Sung by French anime theme mastermind Bernard Minet, it's corny but it's cute and puts you in a good, cosy mood before the show, wha

Based on the classic manga (and the anime series) of the same name, City Hunter was a Hong Kong comedy starring Jackie Chan. Made in 1993, it tried to stay true to the spirit of the manga while being very much a Chan comedy. The result was a very, very silly flick which certainly felt like a Jackie Chan film but not so much like a City Hunter film. For one thing, Chan looks nothing like the character and, as good as he is in this, it's impossible to picture him as the young, tall, broad-shouldered hunk Ryo Saeba's meant to be so you just have to accept him as Jackie Chan. The plot also takes liberties to say the least, despite its very simplistic good guys vs bad guys storyline. Whereas the anime had very much a dark, film noir tone with its moody visuals and cool soundtrack, this City Hunter looks very 90's and goes for purely generic slapstick action comedy antics, nothing special. I mean, as a cartoonish comedy, it's a fun film, don't get me wrong. I do lik

In this special, anime-themed 20th episode, fellow film buff Jamie and I discuss movie news, answer a couple of listener emails, review a recent release ( Thor: The Dark World , this time), and rewind back to more retro cinematic topics. You can email any questions you'd like us to answer on the show here:  bigrewindpodcast@gmail.com Or simply comment below :) Oh and you can also find us on  iTunes  where you can subscribe to the podcast and download every episode thusfar! @TheRetroCritic #AnimeMonth retrocriticblog.blogspot.com thebigrewind.blogspot.com youtube.com/TheRetroCritic youtube.com/Cablogula

Here's an old anime series I used to watch back in the day: Growing up in France, I knew Yume Senshi Wingman as, simply, Wingman and, just like most Japanese anime series shown in France in the 90's, it had its own France-ified opening title sequence! Brace yourselves, here it is: So good lol Review coming soon.

I'd never heard of Cobra , the manga or the anime series, before watching this feature so imagine my confusion when presented with all the random space madness this little goofy flick had to offer! Following the exploits of Cobra, some blond, cigar-smoking dude with a "Psycho-Gun" embedded in his arm who goes around fighting evil space Guilds or whatever, Space Adventure Cobra is a surreal action flick that's kind of a cross between some cheesy 70's cop show, Zardoz and Star Wars . Ok, maybe not Zardoz, so much. Actually, the character of Cobra was inspired by French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, who was mostly famous in the 70's for OTT action thrillers. Cobra's partner is a mouthless robot gal called Lady Armaroid, she's usually in charge of piloting the ship, secretly lusting after Cobra and exposition dialog. There's an obvious charm to Space Adventure Cobra : it's corny as hell but in a good way. You've got a tough guy who smokes cig

Based on an ongoing manga from 2006, the anime series of Nichijou followed a group of high school students as well as a robot girl, a child scientist and a talking cat as they embarked on very small but very significant (to them, anyway) random situations which they handled, more often than not, rather strangely. Early on, I wasn't sure if Nichijou even had a story or an arc to it. The first few episodes of the series really prioritising slapstick goofiness and emphasising the over-the-top reactions of the characters to certain minor events like bumping into someone or dropping a tiny sausage. It feels like a very cartoonish comic strip, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The humour is a wacky mix of observational, sarcastic and OTT slapstick with the occasional mini slice-of-life "moment" breaking up the episode. Every so often, you get a quiet, detailed but blurry shot of a street as a breeze moves a drape or something like that, before they cut to the ne

Based on a manga, Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island sounded awesome. I mean, first of all that's a great title, second of all the concept of a vampire island is so delightfully trashy that it could have only been good. Well... If you forget that Uwe Boll's House Of The Dead existed and also took place on an island. The bad news is that Escape From Vampire Island isn't good and most definitely doesn't live up to its premise. The film is surprisingly joyless considering that its key idea was so inherently entertaining. That's like calling a film "Look Out! The Dogs Are Taking Over The Planet!" and then taking it seriously. Why would you do that?! After a promising opening scene set on the titular island, we're soon introduced to our main characters who turn out to be a truly one-dimensional bunch: stereotypes you'd find in a manga or an anime series minus the fun. The smart one with glasses, the fat one who eats a lot, the stupid but h

Um... why didn't I purchase this again? Clearly THE best object I've held this year.