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Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater: NOT what you're thinking!!

6/28/2016

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Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater is available on Hulu+ and on Amazon. Each episode runs for two, 11 minute segments and is comprised of 13 episodes total.

Have you ever wanted to see Star Wars, Hello Kitty and Power Rangers mashed together in one 1987 package? No? Well tough cookies, you're going to see it anyway!

Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater is almost impossible to imagine. It's existence does not make any real sense to those born after 1986, and for those of us born 1986 and before, it serves as a relic of 80's cash-ins.

It was produced by DiC, Sanrio and MGM/United Artists and ran for only 13 episodes in 1987. One third of the show was animated in the United States, one third came from Canada, and one third came from Sanrio's Japanese animation studio, making it a true Cartanime. DiC would later become a subsidiary of Disney, until it went defunct and was bought out by the now defunct Cookie Jar a few years ago, which then folded into DHX Media.

The music? Well get this. That actually came from Haim Saban and Shuki Levy, known as the men responsible for bringing Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to the United States in the 1990's! Before Saban became an enterprise, Haim Saban and Shuki Levy worked on several Japanese-American shows and anime titles, with this being one of the few they worked on for girls and toddlers.

Not to be confused with Hello Kitty's later television shows, this series pre-dates the 1999 introduction of Hello Kitty's boyfriend, Dear Daniel. So her romantic interest in this series is Tuxedo Sam, Sanrio's friendly penguin. What their children might have looked like is a mystery I'm not willing to check into at the moment, though fanart comments will be accepted.

​Each episode is chopped into two 11 minute segments. The premise of the show is that Hello Kitty runs a theater where she and her friends spoof movies and fairy tales in a series of comedic plays.
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Maybe one of the most famous (or infamous) episodes is "Cat Wars" which was a spoof of Star Wars, though it got 99% of the story wrong. That's the biggest issue with the series is that most of it's parodies hardly follow the source material. Another infamous episode spoofed ET The Extra Terrestrial, but we won't discuss that here.

Another issue is that Kitty is rarely seen as a hero in any of the tales. She usually acts as a slightly smarter damsel in distress, but is usually being rescued by Tuxedo Sam.

​Also of note are the introduction of non-Sanrio characters. While Sanrio staples Kitty, Tuxedo Sam and My Melody appear, along with Chip and Kitty's parents and grandparents, the group often finds themselves putting up with Catnip (voiced by Cree Summer) and Grinder, two American-made characters specifically for the show. 

The show is rife with American references and an endless stream of 80's jokes. Because of the short segments, many of the cartoons have been sold mixed up in different order than what originally aired, while Hulu has aired the entire series in order and with the original credits.

Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater was made for ages 2-6. It may not please the average Sanrio fan, but should entertain your toddler for a little while.

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Pucca: A very Funny Love indeed!

4/8/2016

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Pucca is currently available on Amazon Video and on rare occasions, YouTube. Each episode is comprised of 2-3 short, Flash cartoons.

​If there is anything from the mid-2000's that needs to make a comeback, it is without a doubt Pucca, the violently funny Flash animation from Korea that once ruled the Jetix TV lineup on Toon Disney (now Disney XD) in the United States. The show originally started off as a Flash greeting card chain in South Korea, and then branched out into a TV animation, book series and into a short video game series in 2011. And since we're coming up on the 10th anniversary of the TV show (September 16, 2016 makes 10) I started collecting the DVDs to celebrate.

For those who missed out on all the fun during it's two year off and on run, Pucca follows the daily misadventures of 11 year old Pucca, a South Korean girl with amazing and unexplained super strength, who lives with her three uncles and helps run the Goh-rong noodle restaurant in Souga village. Pucca rarely speaks, only giving out cute giggles, sighs or growls depending on her mood. (Her Japanese actress is Ikue Ohtani, the voice of Pikachu in Pokemon. Cyuuuuuute!!) Pucca's love interest is Garu, a 12 year old ninja who wants nothing to do with her, and is on constant battle against Tobe, an adult ninja who is hell-bent on killing Garu. When not fighting for his life, Garu is seen running for said life, as Pucca chases him all around the world, hoping to steal a kiss.

Not to be outdone, Pucca also has a rival in the shape of Ring Ring, a very rude and stuck up young goddess, who would try anything to make Pucca miserable, even if it means getting between her and Garu. Caught in the middle is Dada, a dishwasher for Pucca's noodle shop, who is in love with Ring Ring, despite her nasty attitude. 

Joining Pucca and Garu are their friends Abyo, a little boy who always loses his shirt and wants to be like Bruce Lee, and Ching, an adorable sword handler with a pet chicken on her head, who is in love with Abyo.

Another recurring character is Santa Claus, who spends his non-Christmas time in Souga village, though often as the butt of many jokes. Despite the lack of respect, Santa still does his best to be helpful if at all possible. Ssosso is another recurring character. A young Buddhist monk, he tries his best to preach and live a life of peace, but is always foiled by the town around him. And then there's Master Soo, a being of knowledge with a thick, Jewish accent, who is always surrounded by gorgeous maidens.

Much like Looney Tunes, Pucca doesn't follow any linear path, and each cartoon exists in it's own world. Most of the humor is silly slapstick, but occasionally, the characters also make fun of pop culture.

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Pucca is a delight to watch and will keep you in stitches. It's perfect for the whole family and offers something for everyone. And yes, that does include ninja cats.
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Inferno Cop: INFURIATING and Lazy

11/25/2015

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Crunchyroll has all 14 "episodes" of Inferno Cop for free viewers. Most episodes last less than five minutes, while episode 13 (with credits) lasts close to fifteen. 

Have you ever wanted to laugh at something, but instead found yourself gritting your teeth in frustration? Well that's the struggle behind watching Inferno Cop.

The show comes to us from Studio Trigger, and if the name sounds familiar to you, it's because they are a small company that does in-between animation for such popular titles as Akame Ga Kill and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. They also coordinated much of the animation for the short-lived Black Rock Shooter anime series, so you can imagine that dark, bizarre stories are no stranger to Trigger.

But this show is not on their level. Now considering that this was one of the very first shows completely done by Trigger alone, maybe some of the following mistakes might have been forgiven, but considering a chunk of this show came from Trigger founder Hiroyuki Imaishi, who had been an animator and director for several years before Inferno Cop was made, that hardly seems like a worthy excuse.

The story starts off as a simple one. Inferno Cop is a selfish, money-crazed, middle-school dropout, who has become a police officer. He hails from Jack Knife Edge Town, but routinely tells his enemies he is from Hell, where oddly enough, his uncle and aunt reside. Most of his family has been murdered before the start of the series by Southern Cross, a creepy gang meant to parody The Illuminati. Southern Cross is all about world domination, and they frequently deploy monsters and other unsavory characters to kill and maim innocent townspeople, prompting Inferno Cop to chase after them.

And if the story would have stayed right there, we could have had an easy-to-digest show, with a simple plot.

But we're not so lucky.

So *SPOILER ALERT* the most evil member of the gang is a blonde woman named Claudia...... who appears as a severely pregnant woman in most of the episodes. Inferno Cop has to do battle with her, often shooting and kicking her in the stomach, and often, his reward is being sprayed with her newborn children, who usually prove to be as evil or worse than she is. She and her offspring keep being killed, only to return episodes later, completely fine. I really should not have to state everything wrong with this paragraph!!

Aiding Inferno Cop is Mecha Cop, a cyborg with a docile heart, and Hellfire Boy, an eight year old Mulatto boy, who is death-prone until the final episode.

Hellfire Boy's mother is an eye opening character. Just take a look at her:

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News reporter Ariel Suzuki, is basically a poor re-tracing of April O'Neil from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Just LOOK AT HER!! They even have her wearing April's 1989 yellow jumpsuit, how lazy can you be??

And lazy is the theme of the show. Outside of the fire special effect, 99% of this show is noting but poor paper cutouts being moved slightly across the screen. No mouth movements, no arm movements, not even a blink. Nothing. Nothing at all is animated. And so much of this show is comprised of tracings over 1980's American comic books, hardly any character is original.
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The series is written to be offensive and shocking. Aside from Inferno Cop's war against pregnant cult women, he is also spotted getting into scrapes with God, and eating and re-eating Hellfire Boy. If that doesn't bother you, no worries. There's plenty of placenta and barfing to go around, followed by episode 13, which ends with probably the most lazy "sex" scene ever animated, since Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas hit the PlayStation 2. And by the way, if you don't have the Hot Coffee fan-mod, don't worry. Next time your character is in a car with a hooker, just tilt the camera until you glitch through. Yeah. Clothes are on. Nothing explicit.

Inferno Cop is like sandpaper to the eyes in terms of animation. While it was produced by an anime studio, most of the show is ripped from American drawings, earning it the not-so-coveted status of Cartanime. But the frightening thing, is that with just a minor overhaul of the language used, this could have been on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. But even then, while CN's Adult block is chock full of lazy animations, at least they remember to animate the faces and arms. I can't say the same here.

Inferno Cop is one to avoid. The chuckles are few and far between, and there isn't a whole lot of replay value to be had.
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    Cartanime?

    It's not really an anime, but it's not a cartoon either. It's a Cartanime, a hybrid of the two styles, usually incorporating Flash, Anime Studio, ToonBoom or a similar animation program. The series can come from Italy, Canada, Japan, America, Taiwan or Korea, and rarely, India!

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