Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #115

Originally Posted on 05/01/2004 by Jeff Harris

Last week's Toonami left many with a sour taste in their mouth. It was good, but it wasn't exactly a shining example of what Toonami is supposed to be. Thankfully, this week's Toonami was a thousandscore better than last week's from beginning to the end.

I don't know which one of Plastic Cow's production crew decided to make the shift of Duel Masters from uberserious to humorous anime parody, but that dude or dudette needs a pat on the back. It's funny that people still don't feel that this show doesn't belong on Toonami. I'll admit, I was one of the ones that felt that a card-based series had no place on Toonami, but the more I watch it, the more I feel it has this intelligent-yet-silly humor unseen on Toonami since the days of Tenchi Muyo. Blasphemy? Maybe. Or maybe Duel Masters is just that damned good.

I'll admit, I've never seen Batman: The Mystery of the Batwoman. One of the reasons why I didn't buy it was because so many people badmouthed it so much. Now, after watching it this week, I have to ask you all, what was so bad about it? Granted, it wasn't the best Batman animated movie made, but it was still better than a lot of the live-action Batman movies ever made. Maybe they didn't like it because of the new voice of The Penguin, David Ogden-Stiers. Maybe they didn't like it because they were fooled by the identity of The Batwoman (which I won't share to those fools that didn't see the movie). Maybe, in some narrowminded way, they were upset about Bruce's romantic choice at the end of the movie, a daughter of criminal kingpin. Maybe they didn't like it because Alfred, a civilized British gentleman, uttered a common urban phrase with a straight face, "I ain't touching that!" Or maybe they didn't like it because this wasn't the way they wanted the "traditional" Batman animated continuity to end. Sure, it wasn't the earthshattering battle to the death that many might have wanted to see, but they shouldn't take away their latent hostilities to the movie dampen their viewing experience. It was a good movie.

Megas XLR ruled the night. One of the best original shows to come on Cartoon Network since Duck Dodgers (btw, if you're not watching that show, shame on you!), this series combines both slacker comedy and high-paced action. Obviously show creators George and Jody has learned a lot from the anime masters on how to combine two completely different genres and make it work. The voice acting was superb, and the animation (although not from Madhouse) was well-done. The first episode, Test Drive, was basically an extended retelling of the already-excellent Low Brow pilot. The second episode, The Fat and the Furious, provided the best combination of Dance Dance Revolution-type games and those custom auto shows (kind of timely considering the increasing popularity of auto customizing shows like Discovery's Monster Garage and American Chopper, TLC's Rides and Overhaulin' and MTV's Pimp My Ride). Speaking of MTV, George and Jody still have a lot of deservable hate towards that network for unceremoniously cancelling their critically praised and Emmy-nominated series Downtown. PoP TV (whose logo looks similar to the 23-year old iconic logo of MTV) had both its main satellite and a VJ blasted in the two episodes. Megas XLR is a fun show, a terrific addition to Toonami, and something worth plopping down in front of your television set every week with a couple of burgers and a milkshake.

Dragon Ball GT was kind of slow, but it was entertaining. The action is really going to jumpstart in the coming weeks, and I can't wait. They didn't show "Da Grand Tour!" opening, which didn't surprise me this week, considering that it was assumed that Toonami would be showing shorter custom intros and no original openings. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see a traditional Gundam SEED opening. It wasn't the fabled "Zero-G Boobies" that fanboys who never even talked to a girl without nervously twitching and gasping for air, but it was a customized, American TV-friendly opening, not unlike what Bandai did for Brain Powered a few years ago (btw, if you haven't seen THAT show, I pity you. It's a well-written series that didn't really get a lot of attention Stateside. Pity.). Like Gundam SEED, Brain Powered had its share of flying naked people in its opening credits (the creator of the Gundam franchise also created this series, but that's a conversation for another time). They say that the first episode of a series is not representative of an entire series. They're right, and Gundam SEED is starting to peak my interests each and every week.

Next week, only one series rerun (an encore airing of the first episode of Megas XLR after Bardock, followed by a new episode) and a lot of new shows, including the beginning of the cycle of new episodes of last year's show of the year, Yu Yu Hakusho!

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
The X Bridge Webmaster/EiC/Lead Writer
May 1, 2004