The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (Rewatch)
Definitely enjoyed this one more on the second viewing. At the time it came out, the Lupin franchise was still hung up on trying to have high stakes and epic heists every time, so in part I think I was too busy looking for that to appreciate how well it works on a smaller, more intimate level, but it also took me a while to wrap my head around the often unflattering depiction of the characters. I don't think it even portrays them in the caustic way Mamo did, but the Lupin gang has never seemed so flawed and fallible - their foibles are often so foregrounded that it can be hard to notice the moments of subtle redemption. This is particularly noticeable with Fujiko herself (she is the focus of the show, after all), who is suddenly a complex, multifaceted person, encapsulating elements of all her previous iterations, as opposed to the three or four possible versions we usually see in shorthand.
I'm not much given to numerical scoring, but I feel like the show has gone up in my estimation from a mild seven to a strong nine - it's a strong, stylish character study that is still the most consistently interesting thing to come out of the Lupin franchise in many years. My only lingering complaints are that it leans too heavily on some stylistic devices (that crosshatching, gee whiz) to cover up the presumably modest budget and the ostensibly apocalyptic Cuban Missile Crisis episode is inexplicably dull. That aside, would highly recommend.
Rhea Gall Force (1989)
This was a far bigger departure from the original Gall Force trilogy than I'd expected - the reference point is now clearly the future war scenes from The Terminator, as opposed to Alien and Star Wars - but I appreciate their trying something different and I liked this one quite a bit. While there's not a lot of development given over to the characters, it still feels like there's enough here for it to work and, given the cyclical nature of the story, it's kind of a nice touch that the same character archetypes have emerged again (it's almost a little reminiscent of Blackadder) and a few of the original cast now have a new, yet slightly different equivalent.
Whether it's a higher budget, an improvement in production techniques or just a better transfer, Rhea also looks noticeably more polished than Stardust War did. Visually, I think it feels a lot closer to Bubblegum Crisis and presumably the animators have learned from their experiences of working on that. Equally, it hadn't occurred to me before that, presumably, the producers were trying to mould Gall Force into an ongoing series in a similar fashion to BGC - that might explain the decision to make two films of Destruction / Stardust War.
If I was being hard on it, I think some of the direction for Rhea lacks flair at times and I did miss the familiar theme tune, but I'm curious to see how the next instalments will pan out.
Definitely enjoyed this one more on the second viewing. At the time it came out, the Lupin franchise was still hung up on trying to have high stakes and epic heists every time, so in part I think I was too busy looking for that to appreciate how well it works on a smaller, more intimate level, but it also took me a while to wrap my head around the often unflattering depiction of the characters. I don't think it even portrays them in the caustic way Mamo did, but the Lupin gang has never seemed so flawed and fallible - their foibles are often so foregrounded that it can be hard to notice the moments of subtle redemption. This is particularly noticeable with Fujiko herself (she is the focus of the show, after all), who is suddenly a complex, multifaceted person, encapsulating elements of all her previous iterations, as opposed to the three or four possible versions we usually see in shorthand.
I'm not much given to numerical scoring, but I feel like the show has gone up in my estimation from a mild seven to a strong nine - it's a strong, stylish character study that is still the most consistently interesting thing to come out of the Lupin franchise in many years. My only lingering complaints are that it leans too heavily on some stylistic devices (that crosshatching, gee whiz) to cover up the presumably modest budget and the ostensibly apocalyptic Cuban Missile Crisis episode is inexplicably dull. That aside, would highly recommend.
Rhea Gall Force (1989)
This was a far bigger departure from the original Gall Force trilogy than I'd expected - the reference point is now clearly the future war scenes from The Terminator, as opposed to Alien and Star Wars - but I appreciate their trying something different and I liked this one quite a bit. While there's not a lot of development given over to the characters, it still feels like there's enough here for it to work and, given the cyclical nature of the story, it's kind of a nice touch that the same character archetypes have emerged again (it's almost a little reminiscent of Blackadder) and a few of the original cast now have a new, yet slightly different equivalent.
Whether it's a higher budget, an improvement in production techniques or just a better transfer, Rhea also looks noticeably more polished than Stardust War did. Visually, I think it feels a lot closer to Bubblegum Crisis and presumably the animators have learned from their experiences of working on that. Equally, it hadn't occurred to me before that, presumably, the producers were trying to mould Gall Force into an ongoing series in a similar fashion to BGC - that might explain the decision to make two films of Destruction / Stardust War.
If I was being hard on it, I think some of the direction for Rhea lacks flair at times and I did miss the familiar theme tune, but I'm curious to see how the next instalments will pan out.
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