*This blog post was started on September 16, 2022.
It is actually getting late for me this Friday. As always, I air fry some wings to watch "AEW Rampage". When I have to be back at the retailer at 7:30 am, a 10 pm stop time means that I would be wise to hit the bong and call it a night. But my belly is just settling down by then.
Again, time management is not my strongest skill. Groceries and a haircut came after work and I cleaned up my apartment a bit, but aside from getting my My Faction award for today from "WWE 2K22", it feels that I just lost three hours. That is kind of depressing. This leaves me wondering if I will be able to type out a well written review for 1996's "Burn Up W".
Granted, "Burn Up W" was one of my first favorite anime series when I first got nerdy about this style of animation. The first volume (This was a 30-35 minute OVA series released one episode at a time), "Skin Dive" was a great entry point to capture my fellow Morton High School classmates curiosity. Too bad they were sex-driven teenagers. I showed them "Neon Genesis Evangelion" afterwards, but that somehow did not grab their attention.
After watching "Clerks 3" this past Tuesday, my disdain for the town keeps amassing. Thank the gods that the town cannot possibly have a social gathering on Sundays.
Fucking Apostolic Christians. This faith is kind of for wusses. They make their women cover all of their legs with skirts, but why the ladies allow for that is beyond me. Show me an Apostolic suicide bomber, and I may take them seriously. When I shout all that, it does not surprise me that half of my friends were treating anime like issues of "Playboy". It was a dirty window into another world. They were not interested in philosophy. Why question the dominant faith in a town where most of them were in the one-percent?
Despite my mocking of these "good" Christians, ironically the town's traditions means that I will miss the Pumpkin Festival when I return Sunday to pick up my replacement Apple Watch. The theme was a tribute to the 1980's. If you do not have VH-1's budget, do not try it. For fuck sake, it will probably be a Reagan circle jerk and calls to vote for the women-hating fascist Darren Bailey.
If a town made for the one percent wants to celebrate the Eighties, cocaine better have been flowing through the streets the last three days. At least do one thing right.
And I thought I was not going to be able to give you any insight into my mind this week. Just thinking about how the town does not appreciate art brings it out of me. Aside from not appreciating art, they do not appreciate their fellow man. Thus, why "Clerks 3" further hurt me. A village came to make Kevin Smith's a name in indie cinema, but fuck Russ Stevens and his dreams. If they are not about encouraging the importance of lessons about states' rights in the 1860's, they are worthless.
Now I think my vitriol about my hometown is seemingly obsessive. There was an easier transition to my thoughts about the adventures of Tokyo City's premier, all-female police strike force. In high school, I had developed a third anime website dedicated to kick ass, overly sexualized women. There was nothing too crazy about the "Iria: Zeiram the Animation" side of it, but when it came to "Burn Up W", I had Duran Duran midis playing in the background that were dedicated to each episode. The main protagonist is named Rio after all.
Pardon me for just focusing on the best things about the decade of my birth instead of how my hometown will fuck that up.
Burn Up W (Warrior): Volumes 1 & 2
*This blog post was resumed on September 17, 2022.
I am still pretty exhausted. By the time I finished the intro last night, sleep was necessary. Today, my energy has been zapped by the work day and then arguing with customer service over my Apple Watch that is seemingly just going to be written off by the seller.
There could have been better precautions taken by me in this concern (I had opportunities to be aware that somehow, the seller decided to send it to a previous address.), but to be told that they are just going to cancel my order instead of re-sending it when they get it back from UPS was a bit much. They are no longer going to carry the item, so they are not going to take care of me.
Well, the company asked for me to trust them with a resolution, which I was not, as a response for me demanding to speak to a supervisor after the agent responded to my solution (re-send the watch that is coming back to them) with, "Why should we do that?" You do not get to say why should we help you when we are going to give you your money back. In 20 years in the field, I have never asked why I should help.
I do not need to head into 36 hours of downtime with that on my mind. Lets hope talking about the anime will leave a better taste in my mouth.
Burn Up W (Warrior): Episode 1 & 2
(For real this time).Rio is a frustrated cop working in the homicide division. Her impulsive spending has left her considering selling her used underwear to stave off an army of debt collectors. Things would be easier if there were more opportunities for the Tokyo City Police's Warrior strike force to see action. Too bad the circumstances that would require the team of Rio, the impatient sniper Maya, the kawaii computer hacker Lilica, and the advanced weapons developer Nanvel are few and far between.
That is until the Tokyo Hotel Kingdom is taken over by terrorists. The motivation is to bring the city to its knees since the venue was hosting an international conference. What they want in exchange for the VIP's safeties: the manager of the Tokyo Giants to prostrate himself for his team's performance, to add the word "Final" to the title of the latest sequel to the hottest video game, destroy all of the surfboards at Shona Beach, and for the top pop idol to perform a nude bungee jump from the top of the hotel. To avoid an international incident, the Warrior team is better suited option when compared totrying storm the building with a swat team.
Maki, the team's leader, finds this not to be much of a challenge, so it must be hiding something truly sinister. She may not know what is going on, but her intuition is correct. The assault is a cover by an organization to gain an audience with the diplomats to present them with a virtual drug. Their efforts are to make their illegal activities palatable for eventual legalization. Until that day, they intend to create a criminal underworld that they can control with their advanced technologies.
So the Warrior team best save the day with their unconventional methods, because an enemy may have finally stepped up that would require their particular set of skills.
"Burn Up W" should be considered an easy to sell concept. It is juvenile humor with action that I do not think live-action media has successfully captured. The closest thing to it would be the "Deadpool" cinematic franchise, but without the fourth wall breaking.
I guess you can say it is closer to "Pokemon: Detective Pikachu" in tone (at least for the first two episodes) as our heroines take on the bad lads and lasses. The action is fine, but incorporating fan service is what keeps the audience involved. It differentiates itself from the feature I compared it to by using big boobs and firm butts as the Easter eggs we are looking for instead of cute, super-powered fictional animals. Ryan Reynolds was obviously not involved with this, but you would expect Van Wilder to be showing this at college parties.
Obviously, I have seen the complete series numerous times. There are only four episodes. What is fun about that is that you see the evolution of the series artistically. "Skin Dive" is great looking trash cinema, which it had to be to allow for further episodes. The animation and character designs are not necessarily innovative, but drawn to perfection. Add in all of the standard manga tropes and cutaways and close it with a great theme song (I am partial to anything with an English title like "Martian Successor Nadesico's" "You Get to Burning".), the audience will definitely want more. Of course that is provided you are not prudish when it comes to nude sports.
The second episode, "Search for the Virtual Idol", seems like it was not green lit until after the success of the first. This is where you see the short cuts. Its story of finding a virtual idol who has been coerced by the bad guys to enter the real world via an android body is far more convoluted thus not as solid as the predecessor. Fun can still be had, but it over complicates the premise and appears rushed.
There was no opening credits sequence in the first episode. Since the series is moving forward, one was needed from this point forward. The producers decided to release this before it was completed, so you get a mix between the car chase they wanted to sell newcomers on with out of context scenes from "Skin Dive". By the third episode, it was completed, but then you get a tonal shift halfway through that volume. This means the series maybe selling the uninitiated a false bag of goods.
With the work in progress nature of the "Search for the Virtual Idol", the animation and colors do not look as good as the first episode. Again, by episode three, all is corrected. But, if you come in at episode two, I could see the viewer enjoying the show, but they will not be ready to throw $25 down for the next episode. Unless the viewer is intrigued to see what anime they lampoon next. This episode pays a lot of tribute to "Neon Genesis Evangelion". What series will they go after in episode three (I did not notice anything in particular, but I am not the otaku that I once was.).
In the age of DVD box sets, "Burn-Up W" is a rewarding series. It is the best blend of action and dirty humor that I can recall.
Stateside, the way the series is put together, I do not see it being a sure fire success by selling one episode at a time. But with DVD holding six hours a disc, you are left disappointed that the series concludes in four volumes. Fortunately, there are at least two spin of television series, so you can always get a hit of what Rio and company are offering, if streaming services allow.
